One Breath, Two
by T.L. Arens
Summary: G1. Medbay is invaded by hostile alien creatures known as xenomorphs. But just as the surprise is sprung, Cybertron is crossed by a nexus ribbon that interdimensionally links to a fracture that hits Fort Max in another dimension simultaneously.
1. Chapter 1

Warning: Contains graphic violence! Author's note: This story fits into **Devil's Dance** after chapter two. Those not familiar with Birgit Stabler's work can get a brief glimpse of her world in **Body and Soul.** However, for those readers who have read Gryph's work, but not mine, can still read this and follow along just fine. The Sentinels, including Shan, Voodoo, Kyle, Steve, Midnight, Kayla, Spellbinder, Matt and Dagger are characters of Birgit "Gryph" Stabler. Transformers, including Optimus/Rodimus Prime, Megatron and Perceptor are all children of Hasbro (c)1986. The Xenomorphs from 'Aliens' are (c) 1986 20th Century Fox, directed by James Cameron. No money is being made off this project-that's why it's on the Internet, not being sold for profit.

TRANSFORMERS:

SENTINEL ARC: ONE BREATH, TWO

Chapter 1

"Doctor Scott to E-R 2. Doctor Scott to E-R 2. Stat."

Kyle abruptly abandoned his afternoon students to attend the emergency call. He jumped down three staircases and onto ER Level Two. An older nurse with thinning hair joined him as he passed Reception Room Alpha.

"Thank you for your swift response, Doctor Scott. We've placed Mr. Frasier in 119."

Kyle flinched at the name and stared at Mr. Andersen. "Frasier?" he repeated.

"Yes, sir," answered the male nurse as they swiftly paced toward Matt's room. "Several stab wounds. The worst is located in the pectoralis minor between right four and five, slightly puncturing the right lung. X-ray shows the blade tip is lodged in the apex pulmonis."

Kyle glanced over the digipad. As they walked on, his foot contacted a sticky spot on the floor. Kyle and Andersen stopped dead in their tracks and Kyle lifted his foot. A mucus-like substance stretched with his movements and Kyle's sighed. What was the matter with maintenance? He produced a pair of gloves from his coat pocket and wiped the nasty stuff from his shoe. Then he punched an order on the pad and sent it through the hospital's intranet, ordering maintenance to that area.

Without skipping a beat, Kyle continued toward Matt's room. He paged back to Matt's chart, reading exactly what Andersen said; Matt just escaped with his lung intact.

Matt snapped his blue eyes open as Kyle stepped in. "Thought you were one of those 'operatives' who come in to offer a sponge bath."

Kyle tried to think of a rebuttal, but nothing came to mind. "So, someone told me you were in a fight of sorts."

"Of sorts?" Frasier bore holes into Kyle with his eyes and tried to sit up. "A fight with Tracy does not constitute 'sorts', Doctor Scott. I was trying to have a level-headed conversation with my former wife and before I knew it, I was defending myself against a carving knife!" Frasier turned away and under his breath declared, "crazy bitch."

Kyle heard him but said nothing. He checked the dressings then proceeded to tell Matt the bad news: "Matt, you have a knife fragment lodged in your right lung. I'll have to remove it immediately."

Matt rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Figures." He sulked, staring at the painting to his left. Kyle remained silent, guessing Frasier was communicating with Dagger. A minute later Matt turned back, his face a little less pensive. "Dagger says you'd better be good to me."

Kyle grunted and scribbled across the digipad. "Tell him I'm a doctor, not your fairy godmother. Did Dagger bring you in?"

"Yes. Does this mean I can sue my Ex for punitive damages?"

Kyle thought the idea rather funny, but kept his composure in case Matt took it wrong. "Well, I'd certainly do something legal about it, Matt."

As Kyle spoke, Kayla slipped in, snapping on a pair of gloves. She disconnected Matt from his IV and smiled lightly when he winked at her. "Colonel Frasier, I was just informed your Dokiah is a little out of control. Medbay would appreciate it if he would stop kicking the north side wall."

Matt gasped in mock surprise. "Dagger's having a temper tantrum? My, he must be upset!" Kyle and Kayla stared at him. Frasier told himself they were tying not to smile. He watched as Kyle handed Kayla the digipad and silently withdrew.

Kayla studied the chart until she sensed Frasier's emotional mood. Her large gold-speckled eyes pinned him. Matt smiled.

"He loves you, you know. He just doesn't know it."

Kayla only answered with a smile.

Four hours later, Kyle greeted Matt as he woke groggy and disoriented. Frasier rubbed his eyes and found the simple movement painful. "How'd it go?"

"Just fine," Kyle beamed. "The wound was a clean cut and we found no foreign materials on or around the fragment. Oh, and Steve said to get well fast." Just as he finished his sentence, Kyle thought he heard something scrape along the floor in the hallway. He glanced, finding nothing but an old man scuttling against a walker. The nurse accompanying him glanced at Kyle, her face burdened.

Matt sighed loudly. "I guess there'll be no golfing for me this weekend, huh?"

"Hmm? No, not this weekend, Matt. Next week, if you're a good boy."

Matt gave a Cheshire grin as Kayla entered the room and proceeded to take his blood pressure. "How's Steve, by the way?"

"Behaving himself." Kyle replied quickly.

"Oh yeah?" Matt's grin widened. "That's never a guarantee, Kyle." He laughed when Scott ordered him to hush.

Kyle took a break then handled six more patients before starting his paperwork. The old clock on the wall struck one a.m. before Doctor Scott decided he needed to go home. Voodoo grumbled about late night traffic around Central Command and how he hated playing crowd control specialist.

_Could be worse._ Kyle sent: _You could be playing babysitter to a diplomat._

_Well, that has its rewards now and again._ Voodoo thought he'd let Kyle make his own assumptions.

_The flying?_ Kyle couldn't help but smile as he gathered digipads and books and straightened his desk.

_Did I saying anything about flying? _

_Didn't have to. I'm sure you like to pull a few stunts just to test their bladder control. _

_I said nothing of the sort._ Voodoo snorted.

_Didn't have to. _

_You think that because I have to play babysitter that I harass diplomats by flying wildly? _

_Yes. _

_I do not! _

_I'll bet you do. _Kyle smiled and placed three books on a shelf.

_Don't. _

_Do. _

_Oh! So now I'm Mr. Mischievous! _

Kyle paused and slightly shook his head. _I know how you love to harass 'visitors'._ Kyle cringed when Voodoo spat a few unmentionable words. An uncommon noise from the hallway diverted Kyle from the Sentinel's profanities. He peered out his office door and glimpsed a huge spidery thing as it slipped round the corner down the hall. Kyle reached for a weapon and activated his comlink.

_Kyle, what's wrong?_ Voodoo sensed his Tentchi's concern, dumped the argument and instantly diverted his course straight for Medbay.

_Dunno. I saw something. Hold on._ Doctor Scott set the weapon for stung. "Security, this is Doctor Scott, Level Four, Organics. I just spotted an animal."

Kyle turned the corner but saw nothing more than late night personnel. He crept forward, scanning left to right, holding his breath as Voodoo waited. Kyle passed one door, two, three, four and a wheelchair. He about gave up when something screeched behind. Kyle turned to face an oncoming attacker, skittering along the floor on eight legs. A long tail slithered behind it, ending in a broad, deadly club. It zeroed on Kyle as he shot it two and three times. He raised the gun's power to no affect and finally had to bolt.

It chased him down the unusually quiet hallway until Scott ran into a nurse. Her tray of hypos spilt everywhere and Kyle tried to drag her with him.

"Excuse you! What the HELL is your problem?"

She never got her answer. The creature leapt and she crashed in a tumble of arachnid, legs and a muffled scream. The creature plastered its whole body about her face and locked its legs securely around her head.

Medbay security arrived as Kyle checked her pulse.

"Get her into an exam room, right now!" He ordered.

_Kyle, Kyle, what's wrong?_ Voodoo demanded.

_A Xenomorph, Voodoo. You'd better inform Central. We have a problem. _

Perceptor stood before the council table. Armed with a pointer, he struggled to use simple language so the others could understand what was about to happen to their home world. "It's relatively harmless. The electromagnetic trajectory is approximately two hundred and fifty million kilometers long and four thousand kilometers abroad. We estimate the ribbon will pass through Cybertron approximately two hours from now. There may be loss of power for a few moments as its tri-polar molecular synapsis has chrono-magnetic properties. These properties might cause a cessation of movement even by organic life forms due to the subatomic shift of its inner and outer antimatter axis."

The council sat there, unmoved, their faces blank. Optimus shifted in his chair. "How long will it take the ribbon to pass through Cybertron, Perceptor?"

"Calculating its speed, the angel of its descent and considering the size of its magnetic field and the hyper activity of its tri-polar synapsis, we believe it will take approximately nine point nine three four thousand astro-seconds.

"Ten minutes." Steve softly translated. Midnight smiled.

Rodimus frowned. "Are there any precautions we need to take, Perceptor? Should we turn the lights off and unplug the TV?"

Shan smirked next to him and folded her arms.

"Unfortunately, Rodimus Prime, we do not know how much damage, if any, the ribbon can cause. It is a mass of conflicting molecular impulses vibrating at the speed of light to the second power."

Megatron's red optics narrowed. "How can you claim it's impotency, Perceptor?"

The Autobot scientist reflected shame, unable to make optical contact with the Decepticon or Tornado sitting beside him. "I don't really know if it is or not, Megatron. What I do know is the ribbon has passed through other planets without adversely affecting them. However, those planets it has previously intersected have only been organic-based worlds.

Shangyn asked another question but Steve did not hear it. Noise from Kyle over their empathic distracted him and he realized something was wrong. He turned to his Dokiah, breathless. "Mid!" he whispered. _Something's wrong at Medbay._

The very next minute a messenger emerged into the chamber and handed a tablet to Optimus Prime. Prime turned to Rodimus and Midnight. "Trouble at Medbay." He announced.

Roddi abandoned the room with Shan tapping at his heels. Megatron left immediately after Midnight and a second later, Steve phased with his Dokiah.

Knowing Rodimus would handle things, Prime turned to the scientist. "Continue, Perceptor."

---------------------------------------

Kyle ordered the victim into a pressure chamber where she was bathed head to toe in a blue oily substance. This cooled her body temperature and kept the parasite egg, now inserted in her body, from gestating.

Kyle worked quickly to remove the egg. He needed to spare the 'face hugger' for study. Using a soft sonic vibrator to distract the creature, Doctor Scott carefully opened the woman's stomach and extracted the implant, still in its shell stage.

Security scoured the hospital from room to room, seeking acid trails and other possible victims. Kyle sternly ordered all unnecessary power to the Fourth Level cut and all part-time staff sent home. Of course, Gatchel, the chief medical officer of the Organics Division, would be infuriated that no one cleared orders through him.

Dr. Scott dropped the infant alien into a flask and closed his patient. The next part was going to be tricky. Face huggers live about twenty-four hours after laying the egg inside the host.

The sonic vibrator maintained a low-key frequency wave that resembled a soft playing electric guitar. Kyle studied the creature's outer layers, trying to detect whether or not the creature was nervous. If so, it would be difficult to remove it. However, if the face hugger was relaxed, the task would be over in fifteen seconds.

But Kyle determined the face hugger was going to play hard ball. He turned to his tool tray and chose a vial of soft brown liquid. Ziptroquapramine was a potent muscle relaxer. He poured it over the creature with a measure of care, in case the 'critter' decided to get cranky.

Dr. Scott waited until the liquid started to drip from creature to floor before returning to his tray and choosing another vial of soft rose. Utramin deadened the nerves from the outside. Kyle figured he'd lull the creature into a sense of false security before numbing it to the world. It was like making someone dead-faced drunk.

The creature's legs fell limp. Kyle gently unwrapped its tail from about the patient's neck and lifted the whole creature off her face. Kayla came to him with a glass container reinforced with a force field and he laid the numbed animal inside. Kayla closed and locked the container.

The intense hour-long operation drained Kyle. He leaned against the wall outside the room and peeled his robe.

Kayla freed her hair from its bonds as she approached. "You did a wonderful job in there," she congratulated.

He gave her a grim smile. "This is not good, Kayla. One Xenomorph usually means there must be others around."

"I know. We've dealt with Xenomorphs before. I'm sure security will turn up something."

"Dr. Scott?" Both turned to a lab technician with a dark velvety face and broad black eyes. "Sir, I suggest you come observe this. It is a mite out of the ordinary."

Kayla and Kyle joined Mr. Chittles in Lab 4 after three security checks. They entered a three-door chamber passing the observation room. The chamber circled a two-hundred foot radius complete with every scanner imaginable. In the center stood an island table and command computer layout. The table contained trays of utensils and digital tablets and in the center sat the same glass container Kayla used to entrap the Xenomorph.

Except there was no Xenomorph in the transparent cage.

"What in the three hells . . ." Kyle didn't know how to finish his sentence.

"That is why I brought you here, Doctor." Chittles answered deadpan. "I was scanning and abruptly it was not there anymore. I do not know what happened. I am afraid it might have escaped. You do not think it will go after another host elsewhere, do you?"

"No." Kyle circled the table, taking note that Kayla's lock remained intact. "Face huggers contain only one egg. After that, they die. But I don't see how it could have escaped. No one tampered with the force field, did they?"

"No sir. I have been the only one in the room and the cameras have been on the entire time."

Kayla closely scrutinized the container and realized how odd it looked; as if it were partly filled with water. Kyle asked other questions as she stared at the glass cell. She held it to the light. Right there, limp against the glass, lay the eight legged Xenomorph. "It's still here."

"What?" Kyle and Chittles chorused.

"Right here, Kyle. It's still here."

Kyle examined it and noticed the bending of light and reflection. "I'll be damned." He muttered. "The damn thing has the ability to make itself look invisible."

Cold realization hit the two Tentchi simultaneously. If the Xenomorph could disappear from the scanners in a laboratory, how much more easily could other Xenomorphs hide from security scanners?

"Crayph." Kyle spat. He patched into the security line. "This is Doctor Kyle Scott. You must evacuate the hospital at once."

"What's that, Doctor?"

"We have a serious problem. The Xenomorphs can hide from cameras. You must evacuate the hospital."

Kyle waited three beats for an answer before he and Kayla exchanged worried looks. Then the guy at the other end responded but his voice came only as a garbled, straggling sound. Kayla raced for the exit and Kyle followed her at a slower pace. "Lock yourself in here," he ordered. "I want you to dissect that thing and transmit everything you learn about it. Is that clear?"

"Y-yes, Doctor."

Kyle and Kayla exited the room and headed back. The dim corridors glowed with the eerie red emergency lighting. The Tentchi were the only two souls traversing the hallway. Chills raced down Kyle's back. He could not recall a time Medbay looked like this, even in Voodoo's memory.

"Where is everyone?" Kyle asked quietly.

"Evacuating." Kayla answered.

Dr. Scott shook his head. "But there's over two thousand people working and recovering on this level alone. Why the silence?"

The Tentchi stopped dead when they found several limp carcasses dragging themselves against the corridor walls toward them. The emergency red lighting added a sense of gruesomeness to the scene. One body dropped, forming a gross limp mass. Kayla gripped Kyle's arm in abhorrence. Kyle swallowed hard and gripped his companion fiercely before darting back. They heard something softly claw the metal flooring with a tak-scratch-tak pounding almost noiselessly. They reached a conjunction and Kyle swiftly slammed his fist into an emergency breaker.

Light flickered in their faces as the field activated. Then the field snapped with impact. Their invisible stalker screeched in protest while the force field fed it several hundred volts of electricity. The resultant shock outlined the biped alien species. Finally its whip-like tail yanked the rest of the creature away from the field and it thunked to the ground. Kyle and Kayla dared a step or two closer and stared at the creature through the dimmed lighting as it lay visible before them. A dark mottled color painted its bony structure. Its huge egg-shaped head stretched back along its shoulders. It didn't appear to have any eyes, but the poor light made it difficult to tell. Kyle took an extra moment to note the beast's two mouths and a nasty whip tongue flickering out like a snake. Kyle could not recall Xenomorphs using tongues before. His eyes streamed back to the fallen body, now realizing the victim's body actually had no bones to support its structure.

Kyle did not like the theory he was formulating.

The alien before them stood, taking a moment to regain its perfect balance before its dark exoskeleton disappeared. It hissed as its head faded from view.

The Tentchi turned to one another with blank looks until Kyle dared another glance toward their new zoo. The body was yanked and torn apart by the invisible xenomorph and Kyle was never more grateful he could not see anything clearly. "Let's get out of here and get our exo-suits."

Security and staff evacuated the hospital the best they could. But the task proved a nightmare. One level was evacuated then filled with patients and staff members from the next several levels.

Shan and Steve struggled through the crowd like salmon swimming against impossible currents. They kept tabs on one another through their exo-suit's interpersonal comlines until they managed into the entrance of Ground Level: Organics Wing.

Steve caught the arm of one security officer and pulled him aside. "You can't come in here!" The officer shouted above the roaring crowd. "We're evacuating the hospital!"

"I'm Captain Steve Parker. I'm looking for Dr. Scott. Has anyone seen him?" Steve scanned the room stuffed with nurses, doctors, specialists and patients. He heard Midnight's warning that Megatron was about to arrive with reinforcements.

"We've heard nothing from the Fourth Floor, Captain Parker!"

Both men and Shan turned as three patients from the psych-ward attacked their keepers. The nurses backed off as security came to the rescue and 'dropped' the rebels. The three alien females were immediately bound and drugged and Steve watched one nurse profusely apologized to a security officer when one of the females bit him.

Steve's eyes darted to the ceiling then glanced back to Shan. "They've cut emergency power to the fourth floor," he shouted above the noise.

"How do you know that?"

"I just do. Come on. Let's find Kyle."

Kyle and Kayla stared up at the ceiling two corridors from his office as the dim red lighting failed them. Screams echoed from afar but the Tentchi could not tell if they came in front or behind.

_Oh Primus. _Voodoo swore.

_Voodoo, we've lost emergency power._ Kyle reported.

_Yes. I can see why. _

_Is anyone evacuating from your side of Medbay?_ Kyle turned to Kayla. "Voodoo's just arrived." He and Kayla produced maglites from subspace pockets in their suits and zipped the lights up and down the hallway.

_No, Kyle. Not one living thing will be crawling out of this. _

Kyle froze over Voodoo's mournful voice. "What?" He asked aloud. Kayla stared at him, but did not intervene.

Outside the Medbay Orgainic wing on one of several rooftops, Voodoo knelt before a massive web like structure. He found hundreds of people, medical staff and patients alike, all caught in its lattice structure. Their forms were flattened like smashed aluminum cans. Voodoo debated whether or not to project the picture to Kyle.

"How could they have done all this in so short a time?"

"Voodoo?" Kyle called. _Voodoo, the emergency lighting has been cut off. Can you see what's wrong? _

_I'll check on it, Kyle. But I want you and Kayla to leave Level Four. NOW._ Even as he spoke, Voodoo watched in horror as more of the wall before him phased out, replaced with more webbing and more bodies. "What the Pitt?"

Several hisses called his attention from behind and Voodoo spotted at least twenty full-grown xenomorphs creeping toward him. Their human-sized stature did not frighten him, but when they faded from view, Voodoo started to panic.

_Kyle, Kyle, they just disappeared! _

Kyle and Kayla entered the stairwell and found a small crowd silently descending its steps. The emergency lighting still worked here, but it made things hard to see. _I know. _

_No, I mean . . . they phased in from nowhere. _

_Voodoo, xenomorphs are animals. They don't phase. _

_Well, they didn't phase. Not that I could see. But the nest certainly did. _

"WHAT NEST!" Kyle exclaimed.

He did not hear Voodoo's reply. Several people fell over the rail and plunged to their deaths. Their bodies slammed on the next set of stairs, pushed over by some invisible enemy. The other evacuees screamed as they plowed and pressed one another. Medbay staff struggled to calm everyone down until four more people were gutted and two others literally lost their heads.

Kyle felt the soft sensation of phasing as Voodoo called to him. But the world around him stretched in a surrealistic entanglement of reality and possibility. Kyle turned to Kayla whose expression only mirrored his. The stairwell's structure fuzzed and the crowd's physical composition doubled momentarily then froze.

Kyle's next breath was denied. He struggled to regain it, finding his own form frozen in some spatial disruption. Then it passed and he fell flat, finding nothing but emptiness, cold and absolute darkness. His breath came back to him, but reality did not.

Steve pressed through the crowd and clambered up the stairs, annoying everyone he banged into. Shan followed, dreading the long-ass climb.

_Primus, you should see the number of people coming out of the campus!_ Mid reported.

_Uh-huh. You should be here in the middle of it._ Steve answered lightly.

_No thanks. Megatron's here. They're transporting people away. _

Steve gasped and reached through the pressing bodies to grab Dr. Gatchel as he trounced downstairs. "What level did you come from?"

"Three!" Gatchel shouted above the crowd. "The power's been cut. All that's up there is emergency lighting. What the HELL'S going on in my ward, Captain! Who authorized emergency protocols!"

Steve did not answer. He pushed against the stream of shoving bodies, more determined than ever to reach Level Four. _Mid, ask Voodoo where's Kyle. _

_He says Kyle is on Level Four but he can't physically get to him right away. _

_Tell him to phase Kyle out, for god's sake! _

_Steve, Voodoo says he found a nest-and part of it just phased in from nowhere. _

Pinpricks of light touched his skin and Steve gulped air. He glanced down at Shan who waited for him to say something. "What's wrong, Steve?" She asked.

Steve's eyesight froze. His body refused to move and he heard Midnight calling, trying to phase him out. Parker took one breath and watched as people around him stopped moving, stopped screaming. Dead slow music wafted and Steve shuddered. The music wasn't really music, but breath; the breath of creatures and things unseen by the eyes of others. Shadowy figures flitted before him in a dimension not named. The music vibrated through his soul and someone, something, whispered his name.

---------------------------------------

Impacting the floor knocked the wind from Kyle and jolted him to the bone. He forgot to breathe. Doctor Scott batted his eyes to life just before he fell down, down, down. He collided with another floor and his chest took the brunt of terrible weight, slamming onto him. Irresistibly strong, invisible hands pinned him to the ground. Kyle instinctively struggled but something like teeth snapped dangerously close to his head and for a second, Kyle felt hot breath. The smell of blood came with it.

Intense light flashed from the left and Kyle squinted. Something screamed above him and small metal feet stomped the floor. The weight left him the next minute and someone hauled him to his feet.

"Kayla?" he whispered. He was dragged to a nook between metal crates where they huddled. The Kshi's face came into view; the maglite caressed her curling horns. Her wide golden-speckled eyes reflected fear.

"I was looking for Spellbinder when I heard that thing and traced your emotions to you."

Kyle laid a hand on his chest. He was about to ask where Spellbinder was when a THUNK landed behind them. He dared nothing more than grab Kayla's hand and dashed into blind darkness. Kayla's maglite zipped and snapped, glimpsing at an unfamiliar world. A long winding staircase came into view and Kyle decided to take it. All the while, they heard the slap-scrape of bone and claw against metal madly pursuing them.

They tramped up the stairs, their metal-shod feet beat each step with a clang, clap, clang. Kyle counted each step like a heart beat; one, three, five, nine. The stairs twisted, leading them further along until a jolt of emotion slammed into Kyle's mind and he slipped. His body hit the metal stairs and he slid three steps down.

"Kyle!" Kayla tapped after and dragged him back to his feet. Kyle regained his balance just as they heard the THUNK, THUNK, SCREEEETCH! Of their attacker.

"Voodoo's in trouble!" Kyle forgot all about their own danger and turned to go back.

"NOO!" Kayla grabbed his hand and yanked him up just as they heard a KA-THUNK! They raced forward, guessing the beast behind them leapt from stairwell to the wall, bounding closer to them.

The muscles along his shoulders and back tensed. The empathy between he and Steve caused his senses to heighten in light of their danger and Kyle backed off, pressing Kayla against the wall. Kyle produced the gun from subspace and fired three times. Light from the laser impact flashed red, revealing a four-armed xenomorph. The weapon shot enough power so as to throw the creature off balance and with a shriek, it plunged from the stair rail. A sickening crack followed and a moment later, a sizzling sounded from below. Kayla's maglite revealed an ascending cloud of gas. Kyle produced his own maglite and peered two stories down. The creature that attacked them lay dead, its body fragmented from the fall.

Kyle abandoned the scene, racing downstairs to find Voodoo. Kayla took a last glance up the staircase and found it lead straight into a wall. She wrinkled her face in puzzlement, allowing Kyle to continue without her. She followed the last few steps and laid her hand on solid wall.

Why did the stairs lead to nothing? What was the purpose of building such a construction? What idiot would make such a thing? The Kshi shook her head and descended the stairs, trailing after Kyle.

_Voodoo!_ Kyle called over the link between he and his Sentinel Dokiah.

_Here . . . don't come looking for me, Kyle. You can't help me. _

Voodoo sounded strained and Kyle couldn't help but panic. He ignored the statues surrounding him until he came across a frozen Human female. She stood in mid motion; a layer of bluish-tinted ice covered her figure. Her face reflected nothing but the business at hand at the time she was frozen. Kyle stared at her, speechless. If she was standing here like this, then what of the other pillars he'd failed to notice?

He flashed the maglite upward.

Hard shadows appeared in all the wrong places, filling Kyle's vision with blocks of colored steel. Shapes stacked upon one another formed a giant immobilized figure. It took Kyle a moment to realize he was staring at an Autobot. "Oh gods." Doctor Scott breathed.

Kyle pointed the maglite elsewhere, discovering the hall once buzzed with several robots and a few humanoids. All of them stood with the same creepy discolored ice hushing their lives in a moment of time.

Urgency panicked Kyle and he startled, dropping the maglite. Voodoo was in trouble. Kyle dashed off before remembering he needed the light to see. He ran back and swept up the maglite, moving in one fluid motion.

"Kyle!" Kayla called not far behind.

But he did not slow down for her. He ran down the vast towering hall, passing figures and strangely distorted walls. Kayla trailed quickly after. He stopped at a pair of automatic doors with no wall to the left. A sign from Medbay hung suspended with no strings or pole to hold it in the air. Actually, it was only half a sign. Room and hallway numbers were missing and the tri-lingual expressions were not there. Kyle touched the plaque.

Kayla caught up but gasped just before she joined Kyle. She fell, choking. Kyle swung about and swept up her fallen form. "Spellbinder!" She gasped, clutching Kyle's form in terror. Then gradually she calmed and batted her eyes. Kyle gently caressed the left horn curving round her cheek. "He's okay," she reported the next minute. "He was knocked off line for a moment."

A bad feeling hit Kyle; not about Voodoo, but something else disturbed him, a cold feeling that remained intangible, like a distant dream. He said nothing of it to Kayla, figuring she already picked up his concerns. Kyle stepped onto a balcony beyond the floating sign. Part of the balcony lay broken where a bridge once stretched. A banister blocked part of the ledge. Scott glanced behind them then back.

"Where on Cybertron are we?" he whispered. Part of the place resembled one building; office-like and flat. Other parts seemed to derive from other places on Cybertron built more for free-flying Transformers. The two fused together in an architect's nightmare. Kyle peered over the balcony. A shaft expanded before them, reached up beyond eyesight and plummeted to unknown fathoms. It was down that Kyle found Voodoo dangling from a dangerously unstable ledge three stories below. "Voodoo!" Scott cried. Abandoning all common sense, he about jumped off the banister when a _DON'T YOU DARE!_ shouted so loudly in his mind that he lost his balance and tumbled back to the floor. Kayla caught him and peered over the rim.

"Oh gods," she mourned. "Voodoo! Transform and fly out!"

"I can't!" the jet replied, "I'm locked in transformation paralysis. Get Kyle and you out of here!"

Kyle jumped to his feet. "No! I'm phasing in-"

"NOOO!" Voodoo's shout caused the delicate ledge to lean a little and a chunk of metal fell to the pit below. _No, Kyle. Some kind of machine down here is damaged. It's leaking poisoned gasses-just let me deal with it. Get Kayla out of here!_

Kyle was about to argue that poisoned gasses would not affect him phased into Voodoo, or either Tentchi in their exo-suits. But before Scott said another word, the familiar sounds of Spellbinder's engines hummed through the air and the Sentinel dipped and transformed, catching Voodoo as the ledge crumbled under his hands. Kayla and Kyle made room as their companions landed. Voodoo knelt and Kyle laid his comparatively tiny hands on his Dokiah.

"What happened?" Doctor Scott asked firmly. "Why didn't we phase? How did you end up here when I ended up elsewhere and how come you came later than me?"

"Hey, hey!" Voodoo snapped. "Whaddo I look like, a physics major?"

"No," Kyle retorted. "But you know more about Interfacing than I. I'm still trying to catch up."

Voodoo lowered his voice a little: "I don't know anything."

_That goes without saying._ Kyle mentally grumped.

_Keep it up, Doctor. _

Kayla took another eyeful of their surroundings. "Have any of you seen Steve or Matt? We were in contact before this happened."

Spellbinder shrugged. "I just got here."

The cold intangible feeling pressed against Kyle's mind again. His dark brown eyes searched the shaft beyond Voodoo. It was his empathic abilities that spoke softly to him of distress and an unspeakable terror. Not the xenomorphs, but something of greater power, more alien than he could imagine.

A searing pain shot through his right hand like a carving knife striking through flesh and bone. The pain shot up his arm, crippling Kyle, forcing him to his knees. He could not cry out. He heard Kayla and Voodoo call to him and he felt Voodoo try to phase with him for protection. But after that, Kyle only remembered the pain and the facelessness of an unnamed life form.

Steve opened his eyes and found himself trapped in a world within a world. How did he know that? His hands brushed dark metal. Was it really metal, though? Yes. It was metal because of its biting cold, steadfast surface. A soft blue light seeped between metal panels forming a long dim corridor. The corridor ran in the shape of a pentagon rather than a conventional four-wall design.

Parker stood and touched the wall nearby. As he did so, a robotic face pressed out, consisting of millions of tiny metal fragments. Its lip components parted and a "Ssshhhhh" sounded from its vocalizer. Then the face receded again, reforming the solid wall. Steve shuddered with surprise and backed away.

Captain Parker dared a few paces forward. And while his body moved those few paces, in his mind, his form stretched across millions of centuries. Steve stood perfectly still for a moment. This wasn't a place at all. This was a dimension consisting of abstract things; of thoughts and dreams; of hopes and designs. This 'place' consisted of memories and will. It was raw power built of pure thought. For each step he took, he was actually traveling over compartments in a great, unfathomable mind.

"Ah! I knew I'd find you eventually."

The woman's voice startled him and Parker suddenly found himself in a comfortable Earth-styled restaurant complete with alien customers and a four-armed waitress at the far end, tending a drooling Wookie. The female who spoke to him was clad in silky smooth silver. Part of her resembled a humanoid appearance, other parts of her, such as her legs and arms, resembled a more Transformer's shape; the squarish style designed for combat.

She smiled in greeting as she set a silver tray on a floating counter top and removed a lacy apron. "I felt your life forces the moment you arrived, but I could not find you through the bleeding areas.

Steve clutched his heart. A grieving pang choked him, but he did not know why. "Where am I?" he whispered.

The waitress stared at him with silver eyes. She tilted her head as though not understanding his question. "You are not wholly here. Something has divided you in half. I will make it right."

"No!" Steve did not know why he was panicking; it was clear the female was sincere in her offer, but something else was very wrong.

A terrible groan uttered from the floor and the female's face fell white, her eyes widened. "Oh, he's hurting again! What am I to do? What am I to do?" The restaurant melted from all around Parker so that it was only he, the female and the dark metal panels creating the insubstantial world.

Maybe I'm trapped in a dream," he thought. Maybe I'm making all this up and the female is someone I met a long, long time ago.

She stared at him, her eyes now very human. "I am not female, Interface. I am as I was meant to be. I know what I will do: I will let him die and you will replace both of them. You will not be affected by the Dark Nothingness."

As though a god touched Parker's mind with His finger, Steve suddenly realized where he was and with whom he spoke. Sudden panic took him again and he backed away. "No!" he cried.

"Let me make you my child!" the female insisted.

"No! I don't belong here-neither me nor Midnight!"

"It doesn't matter. Optimus is dying-"

"It's WRONG!"

"You are confusing me!" The female-the present form of the Matrix-stomped 'her' foot. "You are confusing me! Stop your confusion! Stop your confusion! Stop!"

Steve decided to run. But it didn't matter how far or how fast he ran, he could feel the grieving presence everywhere until a whimper echoed from above. The whimper rose to a groan; the groan into a cry, the cry became a scream, the scream became a shriek and the shriek thundered through him and Steve watched in horror as his whole body shattered like glass, fragmenting into a million pieces, all of them flickering like crystal in sunlight. The pain in his soul became unimaginably horrific so that he could find nothing in his experience to compare it to.

The pain killed him.

He lost all sense of self consciousness. He was truly non-existent.

Something brought him back.

Midnight.

"I am Midnight."

"I am Steve."

"We are Midnight."

And he breathed in, finding his form dressed in black, floating in a sea of timelessness.

Heaven?

Yes, Parker decided, there was such a place.

"Why did we pass through the Gate in the Matrix?" he asked aloud.

"I do not know. Something caught us when we passed through. We were caught up in the hands of an Entity."

"Yes! That was it! And it confused us with something we really are not, didn't it? Are we still there? Or did it kill us?"

"We are not dead. How can we be?"

Steve did not need to answer that. He reversed his concentration: Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

And he opened his eyes.

He waited a second. _Mid? _he waited another beat but still received no reply for another two seconds. Then pain like poisoned needles jabbed his skin all up and down his body. Steve hissed inward, his hands sprawled as though pulled apart by an invisible force. His body wreathed and squirmed along the floor as though he were on fire. Parker imagined himself bleeding from every pore and he tipped on the edge of unconsciousness. His pain-stricken mind sought to ride above his body, separating him from the terrible sensations. At one point, his tear-filled eyes opened and he beheld a black shape, thin as a piece of paper, flitting above him. It folded and several legs spread over him, stretching to lengths he could not see.

It spoke, but not to him. Then suddenly, Midnight's shields shot up and the pain 'clicked' off.

_MIDNIGHT!_ Steve remained where he lay, emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted.

_Midnight?_ Where was Mid? Steve inwardly mourned for his partner and grieved that he could do nothing to save his love.

Distantly, he heard someone call his name, but Steve did not have the strength to answer. Someone hauled him to a sitting position but still, Parker could not respond except with tears. He felt the same person gather him up and carry him away. His shoulder ached terribly and he feared for Kyle.

---------------------------------------

Midnight tried to hold onto Steve when he felt his partner momentarily torn from him. Before he could react, Midnight shuddered from instant frost. The world faded like a dream. People and sounds fluctuated and blurred before they immobilized completely. Midnight turned a three-sixty, hoping to find someone as lost as he. But no one else moved. He stretched his senses, seeking other Sentinels around him but felt nothing.

The world shifted violently and Midnight fell, landing hard on his backside. Mid rolled and pulled himself to his knees, wondering if a quake hit. But there were no quakes on Cybertron.

The Sentinel remained still as his surroundings changed. There were no people, none of Megatron's security forces, no evacuees or medical staff. Medbay's parking lot was gone, replaced with tall structures. He recognized those as Human-sized personal quarters. To his left stood a fragment of Medbay, as though a corner of it were torn off like a piece of a painting. Part of a department store stood arched near that. And a little ways away, Midnight thought he spotted half a playground with half-built structures, cut off like the rest of this twisted reality. The still air pressed cold about him and Midnight spotted a fountain spraying water that did not fall as though Primus had hit the 'pause' button in this dimension. The Sentinel leader forced himself up and examined the multi-colored structure. Mirrors and steps reflected the darkness before them, echoing the same grey darkness that bathed the world in which he now stood.

There was no sky but an eerie light from nowhere gave him enough clues to determine he was no-place, no-time.

A breath, sweet as new snow, blew through him and pain dug under his skin. Midnight circled the immediate area twice, searching for the source of the pain.

_Mid? _

"Steve!" He cried. "Steve, where are you?"

Steve said something more but Midnight did not hear him. Pain sliced into him from all sides, burying deep into his muscle cables and side panels. Pain raked his exostructure with invisible claws of acidic ice, eating at his sensitive spots. Mid crumpled, bending over as a billion tiny lances pierced his skin and ripped it to shreds. Midnight threw up shields to protect his friend. He fought the invisible enemy, struggled to shake it and forced himself to crawl forward. But it bit him relentlessly, forcing him to remain immobile. He glanced up and faced a shapeless white cloud. Midnight thought he saw optics in that cloud.

And it whispered his name.

_Steve, Steve,_ he called. _Something's here . . . something . . ._ but Midnight did not finish it before agony forced him into unconsciousness.

---------------------------------------

Kyle felt Voodoo's finger nudge his side and he moaned to wakefulness. Scott shuddered as the poisoned needles little by little lessened their impact. He heard Kayla call several times before he could mutter an answer: "Ssssteve . . .'s here." He wearily forced his eyes open and found himself facing his Dokiah as he lay in Voodoo's hands.

"Don't think . . . we'll ever get shields . . . 'tween us . . . Kay-la."

Voodoo lowered Kyle to her and the Kshi empath took Kyle's right hand between hers. "Shields always take time, Kyle. I keep telling you that." She stared at him intently, hoping he'd meet her gaze eventually. But Kyle merely sighed and closed his eyes again, just appreciating her presence. He wearily removed his gloves after a moment just to make sure his hands weren't bleeding. The white rune-scar on Kyle's right hand glowed bright. Kayla took his hands between hers, gently rubbed her thumb over and kissed them.

Kyle greeted her black and gold eyes, "Midnight," he whispered. "I'm not entirely sure what it is."

Voodoo answered for him: "Matrix energy. It's everywhere around here. Mid's very susceptible to its power."

Kyle stared at Voodoo, perplexed. "But . . . I didn't feel anything from you. I didn't feel anything until Steve arrived."

"Duh! Hello, Dummy, I'm shielding you from me!"

Kyle closed his eyes and sighed. "We've got to find Mid, Kay-la . . . he's-"

"Ohmigod! People!" The sudden voice caused Kayla's light to shoot down the twisted darkened hall. A woman in tattered clothing stumbled toward them, half crying. Spellbinder approached her and offered his hand. She practically fell onto it and curled into a tight ball, weeping until Spell returned to Voodoo, Kayla and Kyle. He lowered his hand and the distraught woman unfolded her huddled form and sniffed, struggling to regain her composure. "My name is Vanatta Rawson. We've been looking for help . . . those invisible things . . . we can't see them! And they're killing everybody!" She could not stop crying.

Spellbinder stood to his full height and turned to Voodoo. "I'll go with her. You stay here with them." and he nodded toward Kayla and Kyle."

Voodoo wordlessly nodded but Kyle was already pushing himself off the ground. "We shouldn't separate," he insisted. "We don't know where we are."

Kayla jumped to her feet as he stood and caught Scott as he stumbled. "Maybe Spell can go ahead of us. We'll just be a few feet behind." she knew it would do no good to talk Kyle into just resting. Besides, it meant they weren't trapped in this freaky place alone.

Spellbinder led the way as the woman sat in his hand, giving directions. Kyle and Kayla followed slowly and caught up as Kyle recovered from shock. Voodoo lagged, continually checking behind them for unwanted guests. The corridor wound this way, that way, with awkwardly twisted walls that swept up like great ocean waves, shooting straight down in sharp angles. Some areas of the corridor disappeared entirely, leaving only empty space, as though the walls were there, but invisible. Even when she shot her maglite upon the empty spaces, the darkness absorbed Kayla's light.

"What kind of place is this?" she asked out loud. Her empathy told her nothing except there were life forms around her and some kind of 'Living Breath', if that made any sense.

The corridor coiled several more yards until the group detected distant sounds of fighting and screaming. Spellbinder eagerly pressed forward. Kyle, Kayla and Voodoo quickened their pace behind, losing sight of Spellbinder now and again. The walls forced them around several sharp turns before abruptly opening into a wide naked area, populated with patients and medical personnel from Medbay. Toward the back end Kyle spotted Shan fighting an invisible thing. Several gashes blackened the walls and smoke trailed up from pools of acid. Five bodies dotted the room like broken furniture. Two of the bloodied forms were tugged and torn by invisible teeth and claws.

Kayla called her helmet from subspace and without a word, dashed to Shan's aid. The invisible creature struck out and hit Kayla. She hit the wall but bounced right back, shooting thin air. A shriek bellowed from a formless throat before Shan fell under her foe. She struggled under its weight as the invisible creature lost its life. Its body shed the transparency, revealing a freakish shape with four arms and two heads; one head stacked atop the other rather than rising from the shoulder line.

Shan rebounded and attacked another invisible monster feeding on a nurse's body. It abandoned the body and swiped at Shan.

Voodoo turned to Kyle at that moment. "What frequency would you say these things live on, Kyle? Are they warm-blooded?"

At first Kyle didn't understand Voodoo's question, then realized why he was asking; he could tune his optics to infrared, thermo, ultraviolet, alpha polar or negative frequencies and see the xenomorph's shapes.

But Xenomorphs were neither cold, nor warm-blooded creatures. It would be like trying to scan rock. "I think we can use negative vision. But it'd give us Tentchi one hell of a headache."

Voodoo nodded and adjusted his scanners accordingly. He rushed forward, causing other people to swim a path for him. He merely picked up the invisible creature and slapped it against the nearby wall. A gooey mess resulted, smearing the steel surface, sizzling its molecular structure as acidic blood ate away at it.

The remaining invisible fiend hissed and two other people lost their lives when its talons dug straight into their skulls as it fled. Voodoo waited until the morph cleared the collective before zapping it clean with his laser rifle.

Dr. Gatchel emerged from hiding among a group of wounded and sick patients. He pressed his way forward, his eyes snapping from one Tentchi-Dokiah to the next until his eyes pierced Kyle. But amazingly, Gatchel said nothing for the moment.

Shan called back her helm. "Nice of you guys to come visit us. I was wondering if Gatchel and I were stuck all alone playing babysitter to thirty or more people."

Kayla kept one eye on Gatchel and the other on the gathering group. "When did you all arrive? And is Rodimus Prime here?"

Kyle's eyes caught sight of a familiar face: "Mr. Andersen?" he called. Indeed, the nurse from Medlab stood among the crowd. He nodded as he emerged between an older woman and a man with a baby in his arms.

"I don't know when I came. I was descending the stairs behind Dr. Gatchel one moment and the next, I'm falling out of control through . . . space of some kind and I landed here with three other people; that woman with you, Vanatta Rawson there, and the elderly gentleman next to Miss Shan."

Shanygn glanced at the old man just behind her right shoulder. She drew a heavy sigh and lowered her head, her dark straight hair slid about her shoulders, curling under her chin. "I do not know where Rodimus is, nor do I know whether or not he crossed over with me. I remember he tried to phase me out when Steve said something to Midnight, but I know nothing more than that. We all landed here, amid four invisible freaks who attacked and killed about five people.

"That must have been when . . . Miss Vanatta Rawson came to us for aid," Spellbinder surmised.

Kyle took a swift glance about them, counting at least thirty heads minus the two dead people. The walls around them resembled a concoction between a three-dimension work in cubism and melted wax. A frozen Human dressed in an ancient EDC uniform stood dutifully behind Voodoo and an Autobot walked along the nearby wall, his paces frozen as his bowed head concentrated on a digipad in his hands. A third Autobot, a femme, stood not far from a winding staircase. "I suggest we get out of the open; search for supplies or other living souls. Steve and Midnight are here somewhere but I think our first duty is to get everyone to a safer location."

Gatchel's face brightened. "An excellent idea, Doctor Scott! I'm sure you and your little friends are more than qualified to lead us to the right place." He flashed his teeth in a vicious grin.

Kyle suggested someone needed to explore ahead for the rest of the group. Most of the people were patients of Medbay other than the three nurses and a doctor besides Gatchel himself. Shan was tired but volunteered to scout with Voodoo.

Spellbinder, Kayla and Kyle organized the group against a corner wall and tried to make the best of the situation. Kyle used an anti-grav light after Shan's finally died down. If nothing else, they had light but Kyle felt they would be better without it; the morphs might not find them quite so easily. On the other hand, the creatures would most likely find them by smell.

The next few hours were spent tending those wounded by the last attack. Kyle found several anomalies among those present. Some patients and two of the nurses were missing clothing or worse, body parts. Fingers had mysteriously disappeared, toes were gone, and one person missed a whole arm. Strangely enough, no pain came with the absent extremities. Kyle's only sound deduction was the crossing-over of dimensions caused extractions or mutations, just as he noticed in the xenomorph that Shan fought earlier.

Dim red lighting suddenly snapped on, radiating from no known source. It cast eerie shadows where the anti-grav light did not touch. Kyle and Kayla startled and the group hushed in a single moment.

Finally Gatchel spoke first: "What the hell was that?"

The two Tentchi scanned their surroundings from exo-suit equipment then Kyle glanced from Spellbinder to the C.M.O. "I think there's someone else here."

Gatchel sighed irritably in answer as the old man stepped out in front. "Should not one or the t'other of you soldiers look around?"

"The old man's right." Gatchel agreed sternly. "We're all in danger here and we're right in the open-"

"No one is going anywhere until Voodoo and Shanygn return." Kyle answered sternly. He attained stern eye contact with several people until the group melted into a disturbed silence and returned to their activities. Doctor Scott and Kayla exchanged private looks of relief. A revolt was the last thing they needed.

Kyle finally sat against the wall and tried to empathically search for Steve. But so far his mind only touched on empty darkness. Steve was either out of reach, or injured and unconscious. Kyle could do nothing for him. Scott frowned and figured it best to rest while they waited.

After a few moments, Spellbinder picked his way about the lobby, examining the frozen figure of the EDC officer. Her gutsy stature told him she was on urgent business the moment time froze her motionless. The emergency lighting cast dreadful shadows throughout the room. It was bad enough the Human female was poised like a demon-owned wax figure, but the Autobots resembled metallic gargoyles standing in some ancient, forbidden storage facility. Spellbinder shuddered and returned to the quiet group. He sat huddled, but watchful, and waited.

The world dripped with darkness. The darkness devoured life, light, hope. Kyle thought he was going to drown in it and he ran across the green valley, seeking either mountain or stone on which to stand above the rising tide of death. The soft grass slished and swooshed under his feet.

There! His heart was pierced with a black blade. Oh! How it pained! He fell to his knees, now a doll in the hands of a terrible Breath. It neared him, its face rested on his shoulder. Greater than Sentience. Greater than . . . nothing Kyle could think of . . . Unicron, maybe?

Maybe . . .

It licked him and Scott wept for the black blade burned from his back to his chest.

Then Rodimus rose from nowhere, gripping a steel chair and smashed the thing behind Kyle.

And Kyle woke with a start. Sweat moistened his face as his breath paced with his heart. Everything was light, casting shadows in a dark, deadly silent world. Next to him lay Kayla, sleeping off her own weariness. He was relatively safe for the moment. The other people slept restlessly. Scott shuddered from the awful dream. Was it just this place, or was there something more than he cared to think about?

Tapping feet resounded from the nearby corridor and Spellbinder and Kyle jumped to their feet, arms ready for whatever came to them. But it was Shan that met their targets. "Kyle! We found Rodimus!"

Kyle and Spellbinder followed Shan through the corridor from where she came. A room yawned before them containing Transformer-sized computer consoles, chairs and a large table standing aside. Nearby, an Alternate Perceptor, resided frozen just like all the other Autobots they've encountered. Kyle eyed the Autobot with respect and dismay. Perceptor might have given them what they so desperately needed: answers.

They found Rodimus holed up inside a wall in a huge lobby two corridors from the other antechamber. Voodoo stood dutifully by and turned when Spellbinder and the two Tentchi arrived.

"He's conscious, but he can't break free."

Kyle gulped air seeing the impossible before him. Rodimus' form was as twisted and contorted as the wall in which he was trapped. His form was stretched back, his mandible pulled painfully forward. One leg protruded from the wall itself and one arm was held high and fast by the wall's melted structure. The rest of him remained buried. Kyle cautiously approached the gruesome sight and dared scan the wall and its hapless captive. "He's inside a pocket somehow." Kyle turned to Shan who's blue face paled with worry. "If we're careful, we might be able to get him out-Are you alright for the moment, Rodimus Prime?"

"Well . . . let's just say that I feel sorry for pretzels." Roddi had difficulty speaking but he was able to move his left hand. Had the situation been any different, it might have been funny.

Kyle turned away and tried to think. He was not an engineer by any means. Neither was Shan, for that matter. But maybe someone among the group of people might have some experience in matters of this magnitude.

Kyle and Shan returned to the group and explained the situation at hand. At first, no one volunteered. Two boys, both the Human, Dillon Delahoussaye and his step brother, a Dryneseium Alderite, Shadrik, insisted on seeing Rodimus themselves. But Kyle felt it less than appropriate and denied them permission.

"Why not?" Gatchel chipped in. "After all, there's nothing we can do for the Autobot. We might as well keep moving."

"We're not leaving Rodimus like that!" Shan shouted a bit too loudly. "How would YOU like to REPLACE HIM!"

Gatchel looked very ugly and pointed an angry finger at her. "You know, I've just about had enough from you, **biknau**. I'm trying to suggest a means for our survival, not whine every time one of us ends up left behind!"

She got in his face, her dark blue eyes sparked bright and dangerous. "Whine?" her voice became dangerously level. "Whine? You're accusing me of whining? Lemme tell you, Mister-"

"Ahem," Kyle called, "I'm sorry, but the both of you will have to settle your differences at another time. Really."

The man with the baby stepped forward, child in arms. "Um, I might be able to help a little. I'm an engineer after a fashion. But I can't make any promises."

That calmed Shan enough to remain civil. She crossed her arms, her face hard and cynical. "So what's your name, Mac?"

"Kamrath Darwin." I worked in Below for about six years."

Shan turned to Kyle who nodded in agreement.

Kamrath examined Rodimus and asked a few tough questions regarding his dimensions then made several calculations based on Kyle's and Voodoo's scans. "I think it's possible to free him by using laser fire that will, in effect, burst the bubble. But the marksman will have to be absolutely accurate."

"That would be me." Voodoo offered.

Kamrath marked the appropriate place with a pen borrowed from a nurse. He nodded, clearly nervous himself. He, Kyle and Shan backed against the opposite wall and Voodoo fired three short powerful bursts. The twisted metal wall crumbled like so much plaster and Rodimus spilt to the ground and lay there for a moment before declaring: "Ouch."

Shan heaved a sigh of relief and ran to him. "How did you get in there to begin with?"

"Dunno. Talent. Thank you, Kamrath, Voodoo."

Voodoo merely frowned and sent his weapon back into subspace. Kamrath smiled a welcome and started back to the group. Kyle approached Rodimus, produced a medical scanner and waved it in front of him. Rodimus sat up and cracked a couple of his joints back into shape. "Thanks, Doctor Scott, but I'm fine."

Kyle snapped his scanner shut and scrutinized the Autobot. "You might not have been, were you not Interfaced with Shanygn."

"How's that, now?"

"I think I know how we got here in pairs; the Interface life force created between Tentchi and Dokiah acted like a life-support system, protecting both from apparent danger. I think that even had Voodoo fallen, he would have been protected by the field."

Roddi gave Shan a look of gratitude, but said nothing in answer. "So! Where is everyone? Shan tells me there were more than a couple of people."

Kyle nodded. "We've already had casualties, courtesy of the xenomorphs."

Rodimus held up his hands. "Okay, hold the phone there, Doc. What exactly are these things that invaded Medbay and how come they came with us?"

"Xenomorphs are a hostile life form from an unknown origin. It means that when they are around, no Humanoid life form is at the top of the food chain. As for how they invaded Medbay, I don't have any idea-except I think I remember Voodoo said something about a nest." He turned to his Dokiah who nodded.

Rodimus nodded too then looked thoughtful. "Any parties you know who are missing?" He stood and winced, saying nothing about his apparent pain.

"Mid and Steve." Kyle immediately answered. He couldn't look at anyone's surprised expressions. Rodimus went on, suggesting a search party for Mid and Steve while Shan bounced her maglight down the corridor. The green of plant life greeted her light and as Voodoo and Rodimus formulated a detailed plan for the search, she quietly traversed the corridor toward the plant. Kyle noticed her walking slowly from them, "What do you see, Shanygn?"

"Not sure." She didn't bother turning back to greet his perplexed gaze. He followed her and the two Transformers trailed him, now suddenly quiet. The dim hall opened into another large room where potted plants hung in the air without support. Rodimus gave them a look of bewilderment; like many other things they've seen here, the potted plants were cut in half; half a pot, half a plant, suspended on neither string or shelf. Shan and Kyle pressed onward in trepidation. Red emergency light shed warm fearful shadows upon lobby furniture such as couches and chairs of differing strengths and design patterns. They squatted within sunken rest areas as bulletin boards, maps and public phones completed the arranged areas. On an ordinary day, the seating arrangements were invitingly cheerful, displaying a variety of plants and stonework against which the furniture sat. But under the emergency lighting, the plants resembled alien insects and the steps leading to the sunken rest areas were hard to see. Voodoo turned to Kyle, "Okay, this place is starting to freak me out."

"Nonsense!" Shan smirked. "It just needs a little cheering up." She produced an anti-grav light and tossed it over the rest area. The sphere of light chased off the darkness, revealing an even stranger setting. A case of railless stairs divided three lobby rest areas. The stairs, leading from a platform to the ceiling, rose about forty feet above them with a single platform in the middle acting as a small rest area. Several yards from the lobby stood half a park with a swing set frozen in motion. The image of an empty merry-go-round blurred as though it too were a three-dimensional representation of a photograph. A small slide lay on its side, knocked off its foundation and torn apart. Behind the park stood two walls and a door with a plaque declaring DR. HANSON written in bold gold letters.

Shan shook her head. "Wish I knew what to make of all this." She turned to Kyle then Rodimus. "This place is creepy, but it would be far more comfortable for everyone than the other place."

What none of them dared say was how unsafe the area felt. But then, no place was safe, no matter where they were, not in any corridor, not in any small room. Kyle stared at the floor, still searching Steve's presence with no results. "If we are to look for Mid and Steve, this would be a far more comfortable place to remain. The wounded and sick would at least have a place to rest."

"Agreed." Roddi answered. "I think you, Kayla and Shan should stay here while Voodoo and I go searching."

"I'm coming too." Shan instantly countered.

Rodimus met her stern, determined gaze. "Those people will need you here; Kyle and Kayla will need you here." He watched with a saddened expression as she crossed her arms defiantly and scowled in reluctant agreement.

---------------------------------------

Rusti woke in darkness. Something hammered her head with the wrath of a demon. She forced herself to roll face-down then struggled off the cold floor with rubbery arms. The girl sat on her knees and checked her surroundings, finding a lifeless dark place. Part of her demanded sleep. The other part pressed her to find help for Optimus.

Optimus!

She turned, but in the dark, perceived nothing. Rusti crawled about on her hands and knees, searching this way, that, not at all sure where what was. She heard nothing except the soft muffled clink-clink of her exo-suit under her clothes. She paused to think logically. The hallway was huge and she could be roving about in circles. Rusti turned to the direction she thought for sure she came and crawled in a straight line. A few moments drifted aimlessly before Rusti finally got frustrated. It was dark and the floor was cold. Still, Optimus was here, unconscious, most likely badly hurt. The girl bit her lip and refused to just give up and start crying.

She crawled about for several more minutes, wondering why she didn't remember where she was in relation to his position before she passed out.

Dammit, where was he?

Maybe she was crawling down the wrong end of the hall. Maybe she was far, far away from him . . . stupid girl, use your head! Rusti paused, sat on her knees and stretched her senses for her beloved.

Straight ahead.

Straight ahead.

She decided to trust her senses and crawled forward and on the third move, her head contacted hard surface and she flinched. Her hands groped the metal before her and sure enough, it was Optimus. His body was warm-a good thing.

Blue light flashed and dimmed as his optics activated. "Russti . . ." His voice came so quiet.

"I'm here!" She crept closer and laid both hands on the rim of his chest. "Optimus, I have to get help."

"Don't . . . leave me."

Rusti could not control her tears. She leaned against him as the skin on her chest split as though by invisible hands. She hissed inward and touched the breastplate, finding cold metal.

No, she wasn't wounded. Nothing passed through her suit. No, that wasn't her bleeding from the sides. She wiped her face and ran her hand along the warm smooth metal just under Optimus' right optic sensor. She kissed the helm next to his optic and wiped her cheek again. "I have to get help." Oh, her voice sounded so small, so weak. She wasn't even sure he heard her.

He remained silent, his optics did not flare or dim. Rusty assumed he was in shock. Her nose burned and more tears fell. She sniffed and searched her pockets for a tissue.

She found a used one and wiped her nose. "We need help, Optimus." she squeaked. The girl turned away, her eyes finding nothing but a great abyss that was once the hallway leading to his office. She didn't have a flashlight. Sometimes the really important things in life get overlooked in emergencies. She'd have to grope about like a mouse in a maze, running into people. Well, she has been here all her life, she really should know her way around. But the trouble was, how could she find anyone in this darkness?

Rusti took a couple of deep breaths and decided to just venture forward. She was bound to run into someone.

_Emergency . . . emergency lights . . . Rusti._ Prime's voice came so soft, she nearly did not hear him.

Rusti's heart broke. It seemed Optimus was not aware Fort Max had lost power entirely. Otherwise, Max would have already seen to it emergency power was on. "It's all gone, Optimus. All out. I don't know why."

Optimus remained quiet for a long moment and Rusti wondered if he were close to shut down. He was awfully tired, that she could tell. If only Rodimus were here!

_To the right, Russss-ti,_ he weakly suggested.

"Right of what, Optimus?"

_Right. Panel . . . triangle. _

She wrinkled her brows, perplexed, before it dawned on her. She kissed him again and crawled right, reminding herself every step that the hall was not the same size as the hall in the school and it would take her time to get to the wall.

She hit the cold, steadfast wall and fumbled for a triangular panel.

No, not here.

No, not this way.

Come on! Where was it!

Not on this side.

Nope, not here, either.

Damn thing! Where?

She stood and probed, finding herself traveling further and further down. She stopped and retraced her steps, fearful of drifting too far from Optimus. Her fingers crossed a diagonal line and she traced it until it ended abruptly and slanted down then moved across-the triangle! She pressed it and red emergency lighting shot on. The girl about yelped in excitement. She ran back to Prime and hugged him.

"We're going to be okay," she assured him. She sought his optics for some sign of agreement, but Prime's optics only dimmed. He was in terrible pain. Rusti tried to comfort him with another hug. Her hand caressed his audio sensor.

"Optimus, I have to get us help." She paused, "I have to get help."

He did not respond. Her heart ached. Leaving him was the last thing she wanted to do. But the girl forced herself anyway, returning once to give him a final hug. Rusti crept along the long foreboding hallway, her hands as cold as the metal around her. She glanced back once again toward Prime's huddled shape. The red lighting cast a sorrowful red glow about his body, as though his metal skin were bathed in blood. She shuddered and pressed onward.

Minutes lagged into an hour unaccounted. The girl paused, exhausted. Her head throbbed and she finally sat next to a wall. She did not want to leave Optimus. She did not want to leave Optimus! No, this was necessary. He could die. The girl forced herself back to her feet and moved on.

The hall came to an abrupt halt, as though someone had used a vibro-blade and sliced the metal clean through, revealing the 'guts' that made Fortress Maximus. In fact, the 'slicing' affected a whole wall to Rusti's right, disclosing an entire section of Transformer inner workings. Most of it looked nothing like machines made on earth. She marveled at it for a long moment before taking a second to see what stood to her left.

And that surprised her more than the wall. A moving sidewalk trailed along some twenty feet from her. She faintly heard gears and rollers moving under it but thought it strange that this thing should work when not even regular light was operational-and what the hell was it doing here on Level Four of Central Command? Rusti cautiously approached the moving sidewalk and recognized it as the sidewalk used on Upper Level for space travelers docking on the space ports either toward the tower or the ambassador suits. But this sidewalk looked different from that of Upper Level. Even in the awkward glow of the emergency lighting, Rusti could tell this side walk was not really from Upper Level at all. When she lifted her eyes, she discovered something else that did not belong: a huge turbo-shaft like that in some of her Grandfather Witwicky's picture book from Cybertron. Rusti herself had never been to Cybertron, but she knew enough about it to recognize certain things.

The turbo shaft, too, was sliced clean by a vibro-blade along the side. Closer to the moving sidewalk, Rusti struggled to make out a plaque: MEDBAY LEVEL 3: MECHANICS. Her brows squished in puzzlement, making her headache worse. There was no 'Medbay' with a 'Level 3: Mechanics', not in Fort Sonix, Fort Sagittarius and not on Cybertron; that she knew of, anyway. The mystery ate her up with curiosity, but she had neither time nor strength to investigate. Optimus' situation was not going to wait. She kept moving some fifty feet before the red light cast shadows upon unusual shapes like that of a mechanical insect, or several of them.

"What in the name of Primus . . .?" She approached the 'insects' and her feet crunched on sand. She jumped back like a frightened cat and tried to see clearly through the harsh red glare. It gave her no further information and she resigned to removing her gloves and touched the ground.

Sand.

Sand! From what?

And the idea hit her.

No way! No friggin way! She came closer and found half a swing set, two seats frozen in mid-motion. Nearby stood a jungle gym standing ominously apart, waiting like an empty dungeon for new prisoners.

"Is somebody here?" she called. "Is there anybody here besides me?" Her voice seemed so loud it hurt her ears.

Only the dreadful quiet met her call. It was as though the red light swallowed her words. It gave her the 'willies'.

Well, where should she go from here? The girl gazed right and spotted other unrecognizable shapes distorted by the red light. To her left, a wall rose, standing on its own unless there was something behind it. Behind her trailed the moving sidewalk. What caused Max to lose power and where did all this stuff come from? Was someone responsible for it all? Was this merely a walking dream?

Yeah, maybe that was it and the only way she'd wake up is to move forward. But if that were the case, then which way should she take? Rusti rolled her eyes as the idea of using 'inny, minni, mighty-moe.' But it seemed, for the moment, the only logical way to make a decision. She sighed, setting her left hand on a hip and swore she'd never, ever confess this to Rodimus: she pointed right first and swung back and forth as she said the verse:

Inny

Minni

Mighty

Moe

Catch

A tiger

By the

Toe

If

He

Hollers

Make

Him

Pay

Fifty

Dollars

Every

Day.

And 'day' landed on her left. That was the way to go. Rusti wearily trudged across the sandy ground as she replaced her glove and rounded the wall. She stumbled once and caught herself, again realizing how tired she really was. No, no! Move on! Don't stop! She got up and marched toward the wall.

She was right the first time; there was nothing behind it except more metal flooring. Nothing made sense! Rusti leaned heavily against it. She was too tired for this. Her chest and arms hurt, her head ached. She rested a moment and closed her eyes.

The girl sank to her knees and it felt good to sit down.

She let her legs straighten out from under her.

It was nice to sit more comfortably. She needed to rest. Sleep called her from far, far away.

Dark. Dark. Her heart fluttered then stopped all together.

Scratch. Ssssssk. Scratch. Tip-tak, tip-tak, tip-tak, tip-tak.

Rusti's eyes shot open and she caught her breath.

What was that?

She feebly jostled her head. A stupid dream. What an idiot! She dozed off! Rusti forced herself to her feet. She staggered and caught herself when her feet tried to fail. Her body just didn't want to cooperate. She waited a moment, catching her breath and taking several more deep breaths. Silly girl! Whatever was wrong, she needed to just get over it and get on! Slowly she felt strength returning to her legs, though the pain in her head regenerated with greater vigor. How annoying! But now her chest hurt too, as though someone were trying to crack her sternum. Chills coursed up and down her back and she resolutely ordered herself not to listen to her complaining body.

Walking forward, Rusti came to another hall on her right and a glass barrier to the left and nothing beyond that. Her face scrunched in both puzzlement and pain. She was in no mood for this. If it were a dream, it was stupid. If it were real . . . well, really, she hoped it was not real.

And what if this were someone's idea of a mind game?

No, there was nothing quite that powerful; at least that she knew of. However, Rusti remembered a few stories her grandfather told her of the Quintessons. But could they really cook up something this complex? And if so, why would they make her sick?

Scratch. Tip-tak, tip-tak, tip-tak, tip-tak.

She spun around with a gasp but saw nothing. "Hello?" She called, "is somebody there?" She waited about three beats, "Hellooo? Anybody?" But again silence swallowed her words and Rusti did not feel comfortable enough to say anything else. If she were alone, then why did she feel as though she were being watched? If there was someone else there, why did they not answer her calls? Without thinking about it, the girl automatically turned left and trailed down a long doorless corridor. She did not consider questioning why there were no doors down the hall, nor was she well enough to question as to why there was no ceiling above her. She kept forward, her mind slowly folding into the growing darkness about her. Red emergency light shed from no definite source as though the light were omnipresent. Her thoughts returned to Optimus, her memory grew with thoughts of her feeble attempt to prevent a nightmare. Something attacked Optimus before the world changed. Was it the cause of this living nightmare?

And what of Freak?

Freak! She had nearly forgotten all about the imaginative figment that haunted her. The memory of it caused her chest to spaz in sharp pain and she gasped and slipped again. Her breath left her and no matter what she did, Rusti could not get her breath back. She wanted to scream and it too failed her. She squeezed her eyes shut and would have grasped the metal under her fingers, if she had that kind of strength.

Then her breath came back and she gasped, but it hurt like hell to breathe. Her eyes watered as though she wept and her nose ran.

Did she just have a heart attack? Was that how one felt? She sat on her knees and her breath came in another gasp as she heaved and began to sob. What was going on? Why was she having so much pain? Why was she so sick lately? It seemed she was always sick and everyone insisted it was all in her head, that she was a hypochondriac. Well, no. That wasn't entirely true. People acknowledged she was sick, they just didn't know with what. One doctor gave a wild guess, but even he wasn't so sure.

Rusti threw her head back and took several deep breaths, insisting her body do exactly as she told it. This was not the time to whine like a baby. She forced herself up and allowed her hand to trail along the wall for added support.

Then the hall 'broke' off. Except for a door to her left, there was no more hallway. No, there was no wall to end the hall, there just wasn't anything there at all.

"What the . . .?" Rusti dared a peek off the edge and found nothing but abysmal darkness. She stretched her hand and found nothing more than air. She shuddered and that was when she realized she now had a fever. Well, she could deal with a fever; it was better than a heart attack.

The door next to her caught her attention but the girl was indecisive at this point. If the hall came to such a sudden end, then what could the ONLY door in the hall provide? Was there a room there? Or would the door open to nothing? Would it open to a brick wall? Maybe the dream would show that the door was her means of waking and it would be Sunday and she and Optimus might be able to spend some time up on the roof in his garden. It was hard, however. He seemed so tired lately, as though he were neither resting nor recharging well. She went ahead and opened the door.

A long, long case of stairs trailed down, down, down from where she stood. It seemed endless in the bleak red lighting and Rusti's hope failed. If she were the only person here and this was the only way to get help, it might be too late to help Optimus before he falls into stasis. She covered her face with her hand, grieving. But no tears came this time. She swallowed them, deciding that it was okay if Optimus fell into stasis. They could revive him easily enough. But she wondered if he would have the strength of will to come out of stasis.

No! She pressed her lips tightly and abandoned that line of thought. Optimus was a fighter, weak or not! He wasn't going to leave her, he loved her, whether he ever said it or not. She took another deep breath, still finding breathing painful, and started down the stairs.

She trailed down the stairs until she slipped, fell and caught herself on the rail guard (thank Primus there WAS one!). The fall could have been very bad. She lay there, arms stretched above her, clutching the rail as her head raced in circles. Her sides ached and her breath came in gasps. After several moments, Rusti feebly pulled herself up a step and sat there, gathering her wits. It was hard to see and difficult to keep going without making a great deal of noise. She wasn't sure if it was safe to call out or not. She did not feel safe at all. Just keep moving, she told herself. Just a little further. Someone is bound to be downstairs. Someone is always downstairs.

Scratch. Ssssssk. Scratch. Tip-tak, tip-tak, tip-tak, tip-tak.

"Hello?" she called, "Is someone there? Hello?"

No answer.

Scratch. Scratch. Tip-tak, tip-tak.

She did not see anything. "If someone is there, this is not funny!"

No answer. Rusti prayed it was only her imagination. Her headache might be responsible for the hallucinations. She started to continue when a transparent shape wafted in the air in front of her, bending and stretching the fall of red light about her. The tall shape wreathed back and forth like a dancer. It reached at least seven or eight feet. She could not see it clearly because . . . because it was invisible?

Invisible?

It struck at her and Rusti caught her breath and ducked, slipping between what she thought were a set of powerful legs. The girl tumbled down seven steps, just missing its whipping tail by inches.

Tip-tak, tip-tak, tip-tak.

Where did it go? Where?

The girl's heart raced and she decided she didn't want to know. Rusti bounded down the steps as fast as she could. Her heart pounded so that she thought it would blow right out of her.

A snake-hiss touched her left ear. Rusti softly squealed and instinctively ducked. A WHAP-SNAP! Shot just behind her and she fell down three remaining steps before landing on a platform sitting in the middle of nowhere. She slammed her back to a wall and pointed a finger in the approximate location of the creature and three bursts of light shot from the suit.

The thing screeched and thwacked its tail wildly, smacking the wall then the rail before it lay still altogether. Its body appeared as blood dribbled and ate the floor.

Rusti's eyes widened. Acidic blood? What kind of freakish thing was that and where did it come from? She side-stepped her way to the last case of stairs. Her heart sank when she realized she'd have to go down one more miserable staircase. Rusti's throbbing head caused her legs to shake and she did not know how steady she'd be going down. The girl thought of sitting on the floor and scooting down one step at a time.

Before she touched the rail, a soft chank-chank hit the floor at the bottom of the stairs.

"No!" She wailed.

Scratch-tak, tak came from behind her and something breathed on her hair. She screamed and purposefully landed on her back then rolled as a thunk-chink hit the floor where she lay a second ago.

Chank, chank, chank, chank.

The invisible creature hissed and growled at the on-coming sound. A flash of light momentarily lit the stairs and Rusti covered her eyes as a whack-thwack-thump kissed the wall then the floor.

"It's okay," a soft masculine voice came a moment later, "it's dead."

Rusti lowered trembling hands from her face and scanned for the owner of the voice. Sure enough, a Humanoid figure stood before her. Emergency lighting lit his headpiece and shoulders, highlighting a metal suit of armor.

Perhaps it was childish, but Rusti could not help but to cry. "Help, help!" Her voice squeaked in her ears. Feebly, she tried to hide her eyes, praying someone would rescue her love, "Opt'mus. Opt'mus . . ."

Kyle gently lifted her upper body, cradling her head against his shoulder. Even in the dim lighting, Doctor Scott could tell the girl suffered from fever. He gathered the rest of her body in his arms and carried her down.


	2. Chapter 2

TRANSFORMERS:

Sentinel Arc: One Breath, Two

Chapter 2

Steve lay on cold floor as though he were dead. No strength allowed him to move though he was conscious and alert. He sensed urgency, but not from within; the link between he and Doctor Kyle Scott had sharpened his own senses to new levels of consciousness.

Not one flicker of light broke through the heavy darkness. Steve did not even know how he came to be where he was. He struggled to think back, but the only memories his mind conjured were tangled threads of some distant dream. Something about power and light and . . . a female? Steve inwardly moaned. Where was Mid in all this? Why hadn't his friend contacted him? A shield stood firmly between them and Steve hoped it was not because Midnight was in trouble and did not want Steve in danger, too. On the other hand, why else would Midnight shield him? He resolved to find his love now and struggled to roll over and get off the floor.

"I know," a familiar voice came from nowhere. "The darkness annoys me, too. Slept enough?"

At first the strong, soft voice startled Parker, but he instantly recovered. "Matt?"

"Yes, Sir?"

"How . . . um . . ." Steve really didn't know what to ask. Sitting up proved slow since his body did not respond as well as it should. He managed, but sat hunched as though burdened.

"I was searching for Dagger when I staggered over you." Frasier's voice came soft, but undaunted. "At first I thought myself kidnapped and trapped. Then I realized not everything here resembled Cybertron."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

"Such as . . . parts of an airline hanger bay approximately quarter of a mile from here. Or the patchwork of floor panels hovering in mid air. I also encountered moving walls when I found you."

Steve could not tell if Matt was looking at him or not, but in the dark, it did not matter. He searched subspace for an anti-grav light. He found one and activated it.

Matt heard the three clicks. "Steve, I would not activate that thing, if I were you."

"Why?"

"It brings unwanted pests."

"Pests?"

"Yes. They're about seven to eight feet tall, mostly bone, bad breath and one I crossed utilized four arms."

Steve shut off the anti-grav light. "Xenomorph?"

"Unknown. Never saw one before. I had to slice its head off before it finally died. Unfortunately, I made a hole in the floor doing so. They have acidic blood."

As Matt talked, Steve spotted a shape advancing in the darkness. He did not think it was possible to see anything, but there it was, darker than darkness, blacker than the lightless world about them. His fear and curiosity prompted him to force his languid body to move and he did so, slowly, quietly. He stretched with his senses and crawled toward the paper-thin shape.

Matt heard the soft tapping of Steve's exo-suit against the cold metal flooring and whispered: "Steve, what are you doing?"

Something warned Parker not to get too close. But he wanted a clearer look. He produced his maglite and lit the world around them. The paper-thin structure turned with a ghastly faceless head and its whole form folded out into a three-dimensional shape. A four-legged spider-like beast stood before the two men. Its triangular head stretched inconceivably toward Steve; its neck still only a two-dimensional structure so that it looked as though the head were held to the body by a long black piece of paper. A mouth gaped open before Parker and two rows of jagged metal teeth gleamed cold but Steve did not think it was his maglite that made them glow.

It hissed in a language Parker never heard before. It was not even remotely familiar. The words themselves sent chills down Steve's back as though they were formed only by evil thoughts and an unquenchable lust. The head withdrew and the form started to fold. It was then that Steve discovered he was weeping as it spoke. The terrible thing spoke straight to his unconscious mind and Steve feared he would dream of its words for a long time to come. His heart raced and he shuddered.

"What do you see?"

Steve forgot Matt was there with him. He had forgotten where he was, how he got there. He fell hard on his knees and Matt swiftly attended him. "Steve! What's wrong? Did you see something?"

He could not answer. There he sat, staring into nothing. The maglite lit the area between he and Frasier and it seemed the only means of salvation to Steve's darkened mind. "There's things out there, Matt. Things. Don't know. And I don't know where Midnight is. Can't Touch him." He brought his eyes to Frasier's and he calmed.

"You saw something, didn't you? I know that look. I remember how you looked during the conference after you and Kyle returned from Chenobis. You saw something down there; something more than the dog-beasts, didn't you?"

Steve's mouth lined in a slight smile, but he could not bring himself to answer properly. He could not come up with any logical explanation for the shape he saw in the space craft on Chenobis. Not that Matt would disbelieve him, but Steve felt it best to leave the matter alone. His eyes fell to the maglite. They needed to go, but a cloud of reluctance shrouded him. Was it fear? Was it the terror he felt just then? He changed the subject, "how did you find me, Matt? How did you know I was here?"

"I asked all the spiders on the walls," Matt joked. "They didn't know, either. I was at Medbay one moment and someone set emergency protocols in motion. They started evacuating the Organics Division. Dagger tried to phase with me when the lights went out. I heard screaming and went to investigate. The next thing I knew, I was running past several hangers. There was no light until I used an anti-grav. That's when I encountered that . . . thing you said." Matt stared at Steve, searching for the right word.

"Xenomorph?"

"Yes, that was it. I called my suit from subspace just as the thing attacked me. I tossed and shot it. It left a trail of acid along the floor. So I shot its head off."

Steve winced. He remembered far too vividly the number of times the Sentinels encountered Xenomorphs. All of those events took place hundreds of years before their meeting with the Autobots. One instance, the base on Alean was invaded and thirty of their humanoid personnel were ruthlessly killed, six impregnated. Three Sentinels were seriously injured. They finally corralled the creatures and sent them on a one-way trip into an active volcano. And that was when another thought occurred to Steve: "Matt, are we the only ones here?"

"You're the only person I've encountered, Steve. I tripped over you when I decided not to go forward. This whole place is like a labyrinth from Hell. There's a place not far from here where the floor plates are floating in mid air. I seared off a piece of wall and dropped it between the floor and the nearest panel and as far as I know, it never hit bottom."

Steve blinked and stretched his senses. Kyle was somewhere nearby. Where exactly, he could not determine. They had tested their link planet-wide on Cybertron early last year. It didn't matter how far away they were, Kyle and Steve still could sense one another; at least while they were on the same planet. They tried repeatedly to create shields with little to no success. Their link was not like the Sentinel-Humanoid (Tentchi-Dokiah). Rather their link was the result of alien possession. It left them forever changed.

"Dagger." Matt abruptly said, "I know he's here, I just don't know where. I think he's unconscious, offline."

Steve met his eyes, trying to perceive more than what Matt was telling him. "Is he alright? Can you tell?"

"Yes. As far as I know. I just don't know his present location."

Steve's resolve finally gave him enough strength to stand but he found his left shoulder ached uncharacteristically. He tried to rub it through the suit and smiled at his forgetfulness. "I have to find Mid, Matt. I think he's in trouble."

Matt nodded. "And if he is, what do you suppose we can do about it?"

Steve shook his head. "I don't know. I'll think of something when we get there." He turned to leave, then turned back to Matt. "Where are we, anyway?"

"In a morgue. I already asked the residents here."

A morgue? Steve silently lipped the words and flashed his light from one space to another, all of them marked with names and sealed with the Medbay symbol. He thought about opening the containment units, then thought better of it, imagining what might not be there. He led Matt out of the corridor. Darkness and metal panels met them left to right and tapped under their metal-shod feet. A wall stood firmly behind them and ahead stood a long, long line of five-drawer file cabinets. Steve approached them and laid a hand on one cabinet. "Job applications?" he joked.

"Only for maintenance workers and bug-hunters." Matt opened a drawer and leafed through a series of tightly packed files. "Hmm . . . file on . . ."

Two soft thumps banged the tops of the cabinets before the Tentchi and Matt and Steve looked up simultaneously. The creature loomed in their faces and hissed like a demented cat.

Matt dropped the folder as he and Steve cautiously stepped back. "Someone forgot to feed Rover." He said out the corner of his mouth. Steve simply drew his weapon from subspace and shot haphazardly. He missed the morph but the action gave the men that split-second timing to get away.

They bolted to the right and down a short line of file cabinets. Steve skidded in his tracks when he nearly ran into someone. At first he about screamed at the idiot to leave but realized the person in question was frozen, locked in dimensional stasis. He and Matt routed their way around then ducked when a second morph found them. The two xenomorph collided and fought one another for a second. The men scrambled, their maglite zipped to and fro like man-made lightning. Then Steve spotted a staircase floating in the air with no rail guard and no supports. He didn't think about asking Matt, he just ran for it and instinctively tapped down. Matt tagged his heels, keeping an extra eye for the morphs.

One morph jumped onto the stairwell and hissed as the Tentchi kept running. There was no wall for the xenomorph to jump to and from, but its supernatural agility allowed it to leap five steps at a time. All three cleared the level and entered another, lit in a soft grey glow.

Steve found he was at least twenty steps from the floor. Matt came two steps behind and Parker decided to just jump. He called his helmet from subspace and leapt.

Matt did the same, hoping Steve knew what he was doing. They leapt into blind darkness and landed in a dreary, silent world bathed in soft grey light. Walls stood dutifully around them, leading to nowhere. But three feet off the floor floated scraps and shards of metal refuse. Matt loudly landed behind Steve and the two ran for whatever cover they could find. If they could jump from a case of stairs, twenty steps up, chances were, it'd be just as easy for the alien to do the same.

But the xenomorph did not attempt the jump. It waited until it was near ten steps before leaping. Steve could hear its clawed feet thunk and scrape the floor under them. He and Matt rounded the labyrinth of walls, turning left and/or right at every opportunity, searching desperately for a place to hide or something that would slow the creature down long enough for them to shoot it. But no opportunities presented themselves.

That is until a dead drop forced the Tentchi to skid in their tracks. Steve threw himself on the ground, but his momentum carried him another three feet. His legs dangled on the edge of the flooring before he managed to stop. Fortunately, Matt saw it and was able to stop sooner. But his action warned the xenomorph behind them and it stopped easily and gracefully in its tracks. It hissed at them.

Steve grinned. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty. I have a dead end for you."

"Give it a milk bone." Matt suggested.

"I don't have any milk bones."

"Then yank off one of your fingers and use it."

Steve produced his weapon. "I have something better than meat." He fired but missed. Either that or the morph was far smarter than either he or Matt anticipated.

"It's just an animal, Steve! Just shoot it!"

"Xenos are not just animals, Matt." And he shot at it again. His scanners warned him of oncoming company and Steve shot blindly. The results were effective but not pretty. Both men heard the death-scream of the approaching morph but the distraction allowed the first morph to close on them at a tremendous pace. The Tentchi glanced at one another in silent agreement and they remained steadfast until the very last second when the morph nearly tore into Matt's suit. Matt ducked and Steve kicked the creature in the backside and over the creature went, shrieking as it fell off the brink.

The men peered over the ledge and recalled their helms. Matt batted his eyes. "Well, so much for your new kitty, Steve. You loose more pets that way."

"I don't need pets, Matt. I have you."

They scanned the area, finding the platform they stood upon was completely out of place. There was another floor under them, but no certain way to get down. The stairs they traveled from hung precariously without support or rail, without wall or pillar. Steve flashed his light two and fro, finding an oozing puddle of acid eating away at the floor where he shot the second xenomorph. There were support pillars elsewhere about them, but the pillars served no function. There were two walls that also stood apart, but they also served no purpose.

Steve returned to the stairwell and thought about returning to the other level, but decided against it. Matt approached him with a shake of his head. "Nothing worth writing home about, Steve. Let's get out of here."

"No. Midnight's around here somewhere."

"Steve, we searched this place over and unless he's invisible or so small we'd have to use an electron microscope to find, him, Midnight isn't here."

"No, not here on this platform, Matt. Somewhere down there." Parker paused and again turned his attention to the staircase. "I have a crazy idea."

Steve went to the stairs and tugged at one.

"No way." Matt shook his head.

But it worked. Steve pulled the step out and carried it to the ledge. He knelt, waited a moment then dropped it. The step floated in mid air right where he let go. Parker grinned. "I can't wait to tell Kyle about this." He turned to Matt. "Hurry, get the others."

Matt shook his head, speechless. He obliged his companion and bit by bit the men created their own stair case.

They made it to the lower level, still bathed in a drab grey light. A moderately high temperature stifled the atmosphere and Steve nearly choked when he withdrew his helm. A bloodied stench wafted in the air that smelt raw of reptile.

Matt coughed when he withdrew his helmet, and batted his eyes against the high temperature. "Wh-**hack**-where's the light coming from, Steve?"

"Don't know." Parker gazed in wonder at the world about them. Light came from nowhere and fell from every direction as though an invisible sun shed an unholy light upon a world locked in silence and death.

Death it must have been, for the very next moment, Steve and Matt encountered two Transformers facing one another, their lip components agape as though locked in conversation before the unnatural event took place. Steve dared remove his right glove and laid his hand on the surface. He felt Matt about to warn not to touch anything, but when nothing happened, the soldier instantly calmed. The Autobot's metal surface generated warmth. Yes, Steve thought, it was generated, not reflective of the air about them. Whatever took place here, left the poor creatures locked in time, completely alive. They were possibly even aware of what was going on around them. But how long they had been frozen like this, Parker could not tell. He patted the Autobot sympathetically.

"Steve!" Matt motioned for Parker to meet him near a wall and Steve turned away and glanced back, now realizing the Autobot he encountered was Fireflight. He sadly shook his head and joined his companion. Matt pointed right and Steve peered round the corner of the wall and discovered a living room standing completely out of place. He glanced at Frasier in stunned silence and the two cautiously made their way in. Chairs and a love seat punctuated the room before a large-screen wall tv, the sort usually found on Cybertron. And upon examining the walls and panels, Steve determined the room was indeed from Cybertron. A food dispenser sat next to an empty table. A sink hung in midair, no counters or cupboards skirted about its nakedness. It was missing some of its own piping.

A front door invited them out and Steve dared try it. It opened just like a regular door, but when he searched the ceiling, he found none. But a light hung as though there was one. He tried the light switch next to the door and sure enough, the light flickered on. He shut it off but not before chills raced down his skin.

Matt passed him out the door then turned back, perplexity written over his face. "What is going on here, Steve? It's like we've stepped off the reality train into the Twilight Zone."

"We most certainly have." Parker followed him out and closed the door behind him. There was no neighborhood, no front lawn, no street lights, but there stood two tall leafy trees. Those were not from Cybertron. Parker recognized them as Earth trees, though he could not figure out why they were here. The soft grey light illuminated three Earth vehicles and another Transformer in the immediate area. A water fountain stood frozen, its water still spraying the air, but neither motion nor noise emanated from it. The funny thought that occurred to Steve was how it seemed that Primus hit the pause button. And he was amused that the thought occurred to him at all.

Half an apartment complex stood near their left. Stairs leading to doors supported a woman holding a child by his hand, the boy's distorted face betrayed his anger. A cat stood stretching its back before the door of the other apartment as the door yawned open and a little girl about raced outside. They were caught living their lives like a three-dimensional photograph.

And in the street before the apartments lay a figure, huddled as though struggling to hide itself from the deathly grey light. Steve needed no second glance. He practically flew from the doorpost between the trees toward the huddled figure.

But Midnight did not move to greet him.

---------------------------------------

Rodimus and Voodoo traversed a long hallway, crossing paths with figures suspended in time like cold wax statues caught moving in the middle of a magical night. Rodimus recognized Springer, but not the Human male with whom the Triplechanger walked. There were two other humans Voodoo rounded, their faces set in sniggering laughter, their uniforms clearly indicated they belonged to the EDC of an alternate dimension. Then Rodimus came upon Aerialbot Air Raid and for but a split second, Rodimus thought he spotted movement in shadows. It gave him the surges because it was like blackness against the dark, something seen, but not tangible. He dismissed it as a slight glitch in his optic sensors and silently asked Shan if she felt anything. But all he got from her was a smart remark and he decided to shrug it off.

The hall came to a dead end. To their right stood a doorless room complete with dead computer consoles. A frozen Alternate Kup pointed at an unknown Autobot in a heated argument. Rodimus lingered to see if he recognized anything, or find something useful while Voodoo aimed for the other doorless room. His scanners indicated the room was, in fact, a hanger, a very large one. Judging by its interior, Voodoo guessed it was a hanger designed to accommodate a number of various spacecraft from small rounded shapes to bulky sizes. Anchors and plug-in scanners waited like doctors for a patient. But there were no frozen figures in here. The Sentinel turned and found Rodimus.

"This doesn't seem to belong here, does it?" Rodimus asked quietly.

"The whole place is like a patchwork of mismatched body parts." Voodoo agreed. "Are we the only living things here?"

"No. Not if you count the xenomorphs."

"And where are they? Kyle says they haven't seen any since that last encounter. It's like someone rang the dinner bell and they all went home." Voodoo suddenly brightened. His 'Sentinel seeking' sensors kicked in, alarming him as to the whereabouts of their lost companion. "Hey, I know where Dagger is! Come on!" He struggled to transform but pain kept him from his jet mode. He flew in robot form down the long hall and veered left. Rodimus followed, zooming round the frozen figures and following the Sentinel down another long dark hallway. Rodimus nearly crashed into a set of stairs when he transformed and slid in his tracks. Voodoo had already shot upward and landed gracefully.

A lightless world greeted them with dead quiet. Nothing but the staircase met their sensors until Rodimus registered objects about four hundred feet from their position. Voodoo already started climbing the rimless stairwell when the Autobot leader chose to investigate the objects. "Looks like a lunchroom." he reported to his companion.

"You know these steps are just floating in the air? There's nothing supporting them at all. And they lead to a floating platform." Voodoo peered over the floor as he approached the top and sure enough, there lay Dagger, unconscious but out of danger. Well, no, the Sentinel digressed, not unconscious. Dagger was just laying there, his fingers moving softly over the steel flooring.

Rodimus picked his way cautiously about the lunchroom, deciding instead that it was a huge cafeteria with no apparent kitchen and no back wall. He approached the wall-less space and found that it was a wall-after a fashion. It moved and swirled as though it were water touched by magic. Against Shan's inner protest, he touched it. His fingers slipped into it and biting cold met them, but not so cold as to cause damage. The wall flowed smoothly about his fingers and Rodimus realized this was a dimensional phenomena. The time flow had destabilized the wall so that it could not remain totally solid.

"Dagger's okay. He says he's just exhausted."

Voodoo's report startled Rodimus and he withdrew, remembering they were searching for other comrades. He met Voodoo and Dagger at the bottom of the staircase and lightly smiled at Dagger who returned with a glare. "Not a morning person, eh, Dagger?" he asked in a more cheerful voice.

"I thought I was held prisoner. And where's Matt?"

"We were looking for Midnight and Steve when we found you." Rodimus turned his gaze to Voodoo. "Can you sense Midnight, Voodoo?"

"He's not here. And if this is the other end of the level, then Midnight isn't here at all."

Dagger stood apart from them. "Matt's here. But he's not up here. I'm going to go find him."

Voodoo led Dagger and Rodimus back to the main lobby where Kyle, Spellbinder, Kayla and Shan had managed to settle most of the survivors for a few hours' rest. Voodoo silently knelt before his Tentchi and waited for Kyle to rouse from sleep.

_Don't have to say anything,_ Kyle mentally sent, _I know you're right there._ His eyes did not open.

_I just wanted to make sure you hadn't seen the Boogeyman. _

Voodoo's joke sent memory flashes through Kyle's mind, but he could not catch exact things. He chose not to pursue that course. "Everything is okay here." he whispered. "Where will you be going?"

"Dagger seems to know where Matt is. I'm going along for the ride."

Kamrath's baby started fussing and the father tried to hush her back to sleep. Kyle sat up and watched as Kayla offered whatever assistance Kamrath might have needed. "Voodoo," he stated softly, "this place is giving me the creeps. It's a puzzle wrapped in a riddle."

"What?" _What's that? _

_There are people here who are missing body parts, but they have no pain. There are others who are missing articles or pieces of clothing. And then there are others who aren't missing anything at all. Kamrath's wife just died and he was going home to his folks with his baby when this anomaly took place. Vanatta Rawson's car blew up and she was being treated for minor injuries. She too is missing nothing. There's several other people like them and I think it has some significance but I don't know what it is. _

Voodoo spotted Rodimus and Dagger descending the staircase in the center of the lobby. He beamed warmth toward Kyle and silently rose to join them.

_Stay out of trouble._ Doctor Scott warned.

_No promises. _

Kyle could feel the tease in those words. He smiled and lay back down, but did not go back to sleep.

Voodoo followed Rodimus past the floor and into a more somber place. Here no light graced the labyrinth of corners and walls. The three Transformers cast their own light and used their own senses to grope their way around the darkness. One wall greeted their left. The rest of the area remained empty. Not one of them spotted so much as a frozen figure until Dagger spotted a series of filing cabinets all arranged in a perfect two-thousand foot line. He jumped down the remaining steps and tapped alongside them for several yards.

"Looks like this place was just for storage." he muttered.

"It's not from here." Rodimus peered elsewhere, encountering the same morgue Matt and Steve visited not long before. Voodoo scanned their surroundings toward the 'south' and found a huge black wall about forty yards from the cabinets. The great wall stood so black that Voodoo thought he could see his reflection in it. When he stretched to touch, his own reflection did not move with him. He flinched, feeling his laser core vibrate with alarm. It was his reflection but-oh there it goes.

No, wait a minute. Since when did a reflection delay in copying oneself? Voodoo made a separate pose, this time posing like a body builder. Again the reflection did not follow his timing. He waited a moment then it mimicked. "Did you see that?" Voodoo turned to Rodimus.

"Whazat?"

"The wall. It's . . . I dunno. It's not right. It's supposed to copy me exactly."

"What's that smell?" Rodimus didn't mean to ignore Voodoo. He and Dagger rounded the corner and found a nasty puddle of acid slowly eating the metal flooring.

Voodoo decided to abandon his search for logic and scanned the floor. "Xenomorph was here." he reported. "Looks like it might have been a big one."

Rodimus stood and scanned all around them, ignoring the wall. "I don't get it. Why aren't there more of them? I thought xenomorphs come in packs."

"Maybe we're lucky and there were only a couple." Dagger guessed.

"No." Voodoo countered. "There was a nest there at Medbay. I saw it myself. It just phased in from nowhere."

Dagger frowned. "V, things don't 'phase in' from nowhere. Someone had to have plant-"

"Sh!" Rodimus cut him off with a hand signal. "Did you hear that?"

"No." the two Sentinels chorused.

"I did." Rodimus treaded with as silent a step as he could manage. Something hissed loudly to his right and before Rodimus could see what it was, Voodoo unceremoniously squashed it like a bug. Rodimus assumed it was a morph attempting to attack him. "Well, that was effective."

"Thank you," Voodoo answered proudly. But the bottom of his foot stung. He smeared it along the floor before extinguishing smoldering metal with lubricant.

"There's something up ahead." Dagger declared. He led them quite a ways down an empty hall. There in the darkness stood a lone figure, struggling to move. Rodimus and Voodoo shed light on the figure and both flinched, surprised to face Ultra Magnus.

"Get. These things. Off me." Rodimus realized he was an Alternate Ultra Magnus because the Presence felt different, as though . . . as though he weren't all together . . . Autobot. Rodimus quickly dismissed the feeling. This one was most likely the Magnus belonging to the same world as all the other frozen figures. Dagger shot two Xenomorphs from their perch atop Magnus' shoulders and another from around his neck, distracting Roddy's train of thought.

Rodimus examined the Major-General, taking note how a sheen of blue ice encased only half his body, the upper half remained untouched. His hands moved, but his shoulders would not. "What happened here?"

Magnus struggled to move. "I was inspecting a leak in the um . . . photon generator on the Eastern wall when-" he struggled to move again, "-this force hit me and I hit the generator and-uuurrrg-next thing I know, I'm here and these bugs have been draining my power."

"They're not bugs." Voodoo grunted.

"I think I can free you." Rodimus said after a moment. "But V, you and Dagger will have to move back."

"Is it going to hurt?" Voodoo asked.

"Not you." Rodimus answered. He did not see Magnus' very disconcerted expression. The two Sentinels retreated down the hall and waited.

Rodimus thought about using his laser rifle, but felt it would not provide the kind of power necessary for the task. He decided to use his own arm guns and concentrated on creating a different light frequency, something that might act as a stimulus for the molecules imprisoning Magnus. He shot a golden ray of light and held it steady for several long moments. The molecules started to scramble and emitted a powerful burst of light and a painfully high-pitched sound. The molecules shattered and flared in every which direction. Magnus fell flat on his back and Rodimus stopped firing. He waited until the glow around them died before checking on the Big Guy.

"You alright?" He asked, assisting Magnus to sit.

"Yes. Thank you." Magnus stared at the two strangers as they approached. "You're-who are you people?"

"I'm Rodimus Prime. This is Dagger and Voodoo."

"He looks like the real thing." Dagger pointed.

"Of course I'm the real thing!" Magnus answered sharply.

"No," Rodimus interceded. "What he means is you look exactly like our own Ultra Magnus."

Magnus did not know what to say to that. His optics shot from one stranger to the next. Rodimus tried to think of an explanation. "We were hit by an energy ribbon that must have shot us into an alternate dimension-your dimension. Does that help?"

"No." Magnus grunted. "I don't see how an energy ribbon would cause this kind of phenomena. And this isn't my dimension. At least-" here he gazed in three directions, "not the one I'm from. I don't know what this place is."

Voodoo started losing his patience but he forced himself to remain calm. "Maybe something happened in your universe the same time something happened in ours."

Rodimus flinched at Voodoo's statement. It made perfect sense, but he wasn't sure if Voodoo himself understood what he just said.

Magnus stood to his full height and gently rubbed an injury on his neck. "Are you three all there is?"

"No." Dagger answered in Roddy's stead. "Our Interfaces are here, too. At least, as far as I know."

Interfaces? Magnus mouthed.

"Yes," Rodimus added, not really willing to take the time to explain. "There are other people besides us. Our companions and some patients and staff from the Cybertronian Medbay Facility are here. But as for your people, you're the only one we've found that hasn't been frozen in some kind of time bubble."

"Time bubble?" Magnus asked. "What-"

His question was interrupted when all four heard a THUNK. SCRAP. THUNK. THUNK. Then: RRAAAA-ORRRRRRRGGG! Rodimus, Voodoo and Dagger flashed their lights past Magnus. They saw nothing. Except the floor wavered in a definite shape and it inched toward them with another three THUNKS.

"What in Nine Hells-?" Magnus choked back the rest of his phrase.

"A xenomorph, I'd think." Voodoo tagged his arm as Rodimus and Dagger already transformed and sped away. Magnus followed their example and transformed as Voodoo dashed down the corridor. Magnus could feel the huge thing tramping after them, its enormous size and weight stomped through the hall like a demon on a rampage. Magnus poured on the speed and the creature still kept up. The four Transformers veered to the right along the dark wall on the other side of the stairwell. It was Dagger who led them right again and down yet another doorless hallway. But it seemed the faster he flew, the longer the hallway became, as if it were dimensionally bewitched.

"Waitaminute!" Rodimus called over their intercoms. "We need to stop and think for a sec."

The four stopped in their tracks as they heard the unwanted guest stomp closer and closer. Rodimus transformed and revved his rifle to its highest setting. "First of all, we're not Humanoids. Secondly, this thing can't be that big. Thirdly, it's a little outnumbered."

"On the other hand," Voodoo countered as Dagger returned to robotic mode, "We can't see it, we don't know how big it is and we don't know if it can spit acid like the morphs did on Golganenth Seven."

Roddy shot him a look, but refused to run any further. Magnus transformed, glanced behind them and noticed the remainder of the hall wavered as though a sheet of plastic wrap were stretched over the path like a spider's web.

THUNK, THUNK, THUNK. SCRAP. SWWWAPP, SCREETCH! RRAAAA-ORRRRRRRGGG! Rodimus fired a power-draining shot at the invisible creature aiming for them. The creature balked and color tinted its otherwise invisible exoskeleton. Rodimus stepped back in shock. Voodoo gapped and also stepped back. Dagger cursed profusely and reset his weapon. The creature before them stood close to Magnus' height with a forked tail armed with barbs and a stinger at the end. It looked half-xenomorph and half dragon.

"What did this thing hatch out of," Dagger spat, "a demon?"

"Go up and ask it!" Voodoo snarled, "and while you're at it, ask it if it has a mate!"

"Don't worry," Rodimus grunted, "Xenomorphs don't come as male/female. They're just . . . reptilian termites."

Voodoo shot him a dirty look. Rodimus missed the joke entirely. However, Voodoo almost swallowed his own wisecrack when behind their predator stomped another beast. This one did not bother with camouflage. In fact, its skin glowed slightly, displaying an impressive array of colors and patterns.

Dagger cussed again and transformed.

"What are you doing!" Rodimus demanded.

"I'm going to play patty-cake. You three move on."

"Dagger, dammit, you're NOT going to do this! We leave! NOW!" But Rodimus found he always had to learn the hard way regarding Dagger. He was a lone wolf, not a team player. Well, neither was Voodoo, but at least Voodoo had learned over the years to somewhat agree to 'assist.' Dagger just did whatever he thought best. He shot off without permission and started firing at 'Xenomorph and Son.'

Voodoo roughly grabbed Rodimus by the shoulder, "We don't have time for this! We have to find Midnight and Steve!"

"I know that!" Rodimus lost his own temper and shoved Voodoo aside.

"What's that?" Magnus called loudly when Dagger fired at the first morph with no success.

"Midnight and Steve are two of our companions. We were looking for them when we discovered you."

Magnus quickly reassessed the situation and made a decision. "Tell you what, I'll cover Dagger, you two go find your friend and meet us back here."

"We're not leaving anybody here." Rodimus argued.

Well, there was one constant in the universe, Magnus thought dryly: Rodimus' stubbornness. "You don't really have a choice. You can't rescue anybody with those things on your tailpipe."

"RODIMUS!" Voodoo shouted over one of the screaming monsters, "he's got a POINT! I'm NOT leaving Midnight out there by himself!" and with that, the Sentinel struggled to transform. It proved difficult and painful at best, but Voodoo's stubbornness and determination won and although he felt something snap hard within (probably broke), he managed into his alternate mode and shot forward. Rodimus silently regarded Magnus with a mixture of gratitude and reluctance. He didn't want to leave anybody anywhere. He too transformed and bolted down the corridor. Magnus followed their retreat with three shots into the dark, disrupting the flow of whatever was causing the hallway to continue to exist. The bubble wavered and the Autobot and Sentinel passed through before it returned to its over-substantial existence.

Magnus reset his weapon and charged into the fray of battle.

Once Roddy and Voodoo passed the disruption bubble, they discovered the end of the tunnel and transformed. Voodoo landed gracefully beside his companion but carefully hid a painful cringe. He definitely tore or damaged something and he made sure to shield Kyle from the pain. They stared at the floor before them. Large sheets of metal floated in mid air much like the staircase that led them to this level. Voodoo ventured to reach out and touch one, finding it moved much like an anti-gravity stretcher. He scanned left then right and found the area stretched in a sea of floating panels. To his right ran the corridor that might lead them back to the same hallway where they found Magnus.

Rodimus crossed his arms. "Well, comments? Suggestions?" Not that he really expected anything from Voodoo, but he felt it fair if he gave the Sentinel the opportunity to suggest something.

Voodoo turned to him but pointed his thumb back toward the panels. "I remember how kids of alien traders to Alean used to play hopscotch. I always thought it was an idiotic game."

"That's not the kind of comment I was looking for, Voodoo."

The Sentinel's form bent slightly, indignant. "Hey! You asked!"

"I meant something more constructive."

Now Voodoo crossed his arms smartly. "That's Kyle's department."

"Well, so much for the comment. How about a suggestion?"

Voodoo didn't think he needed to say anything more. He dared not transform and fly again, not in as much pain as the last attempt caused. The Sentinel leapt upon a panel, steadied himself and jumped to another. He was pleased when Rodimus followed suit after three panels.

Voodoo mentally counted eleven floating panels before they encountered another problem. There was the staircase. And obviously it led to the next level down. But a terrible spatial distortion twisted and danced in an abyss of nothingness. Rodimus caught up with him a second later and they stood silently watching the exotic display of swirling colors and darkness.

Rodimus held his hand toward it. "I can feel the power generated by this thing, can't you?"

Voodoo nodded. "But I think the stairwell is too far for us to jump. I could probably fly us over, but I don't know if I'd get caught up in the electromagnetic currents or not." He waited two beats to make his own decision then grabbed Rodimus around the waist just before he leapt with an: "Oh, what the hell." And he transformed-surprisingly with less pain-while Roddy tried to find words to match his sudden shock. Of course, he understood why Doctor Scott would get so annoyed by Voodoo's spontaneity but moments like this made his knowledge a little more realistic. He quickly adjusted and cringed a time or two when the magnetic waves caused Voodoo to tip dangerously to one side then the other. But they made it to the stairs and Rodimus grasped one as Voodoo landed.

"Well!" Prime announced. "That was fun. Shall we do it again?"

Voodoo silently glared. He hoped he did not damage himself further by Roddy's extra weight. The pain was making him a bit cranky. He tapped his way down the steps, hoping they would not slip out from under him. Rodimus dogged after and they descended for a few minutes until suddenly the stairs disappeared altogether.

"Midnight's definitely here someplace." Voodoo confirmed. Rodimus curtly nodded then advanced into the darkness.

---------------------------------------

Midnight's languid form lay in a cold ash color. His body lay partly huddled, as though he were trying to hide from pain. Steve slowly approached his love and hesitated to touch him.

_ . . . The air hurts me, . . . Steve. It hurts. _

Steve's heart hurt and for the millionth time, he wished he could gather Midnight into his arms and hold him from all the pain and sorrow the universe inflicted upon them. He swallowed hard but did not discourage his tears from falling. _What can I do, Mid?_ He carefully caressed Midnight's left arm. Midnight's skin gave far too easily under his touch. Steve's stomach clenched with worry. He withdrew his hand indecisively then decided it was okay to touch his love. Midnight needed to know he was not alone.

Matt was standing some distance from them to give Steve some privacy. He skimmed the immediate area with his eyes and spotted an Aerialbot dangling in the air like a toy plane with no strings. It gave him the eerie sensation of being trapped in a snow globe.

"The Xenomorphs . . . Steve." Mid managed to say out loud, "They came with us."

Steve paled the second Midnight said it; a morph peeked out from the shadows of the apartment building. Matt had already activated his weapon when Steve sidestepped Mid's fallen form. He produced his own weapon from subspace. Utilizing the empathy between he and Kyle, Steve stretched out with his senses, touching everything around him; the cold grey-lighted building, Midnight's weakened form, the metal plated flooring, the three frozen figures in the apartment building. Then Steve dared touch the dangerous, unpredictable shadows. Parker pressed forward, sweeping the weapon side to side, straining his senses to listen for a shift in the air, any suspicious molecular movement, anything breathing the wrong way. He felt Frasier not far from him, silently covering those areas Steve himself missed. No words passed between them; Matt had been on so many other 'bug-hunt' missions that he knew in dealing with alien animals, stealth was the best policy.

Whatever hit Steve came so swift and hard it knocked the wind from him and while Steve lost his weapon, he did not lose his balance. He rolled with impact and jumped back to his feet, instantly spot-glancing everywhere around him.

Matt spun about in Parker's direction and clenched his teeth, determined not to say a single word. He swept his weapon side to side, searching for the perpetrator's form. His heart pounded in his chest.

Steve stretched his senses, searching urgently.

No, not there.

No, not there.

No-wait. The shadow shifted just so slightly and Steve produced a flare gun and fired a wide-spread shot.

The thing struck out, hissing, snapping and drumming the metal ground as it moved. Steve rolled with the strike then used the suite's own power cells to fire at the creature's backside as it retreated. Matt fired until he heard it screech. It disappeared into shadows, leaving a trail of sizzling blood behind.

Parker and Frasier cautiously scanned the area. The acid trail gave the creature's location, but not its form. The men followed it for some distance, taking note how the grey light fell to a lesser degree here. They momentarily lost the trail but Matt kept going, determined.

No trees or sand or anything out of the ordinary stood this side of Midnight. Then just before the Tentchi decided to abandon their pursuit, light called to them. It was not the same aimless grey light coming from nowhere, but a single intense radiance shedding from a definite source above their heads. Matt pressed forward first, sweeping side to side with his gun. Steve glanced over his shoulder toward his love but could not see Midnight through the vale of darkness. He was torn between backing up Matt and going back to his love. He did not sense an immediate danger from Mid, but he did not want to leave his Dokiah alone, either.

"You are now entering the Twilight Zone. Have a nice day!" Matt's voice carried some distance and Steve automatically followed it. Not more than five steps later, Steve realized why Matt cracked the joke. The fragment of a hospital ward filled that part of the world. Half a nurse's station stood under the flickering light of a dying neon. Papers and digipads lay scattered across the floor as though someone tossed them in every which direction. The hall stood abandoned and dismal. Three gurneys stood empty. A lunch cart displayed an array of uneaten afternoon meals. Nearby, shadows on the wall betrayed the presence of two people. But when Matt and Steve approached the shadows themselves, they found there were no figures, Humanoid or otherwise, casting those shadows. The Tentchi exchanged a doubtful glance. Steve placed his hand on the shadow and his hand, too, darkened as though someone were there, blocking the light. But there was no one projecting the shadows at all. Matt's eyes remained enlarged but he did not retreat. Steve followed him more slowly this time, peeking into one room and finding the bed sunken in, as though someone were occupying it, but no body lay there. The television above the bed was on, but only static hissed across the screen.

Matt took a right turn down the well-lit hallway and found several other shadows lining the walls. But again, no owners were visible. Photographs held figures without faces and empty name plaques under them. It was the windows that finally tested Matt's nerve. A swirling darkness twisted outside them like a hurricane comprised of souls. Matt reached to touch the glass and watched in horror when his reflection was delayed by several seconds. But the more chilling reality came when Matt saw his nose and his mouth as normal, but his eyes had been plucked out. He closed his eyes and spun away, unable to watch. When he opened his eyes, only darkness met them and his breath caught in his throat. He flayed his arms in a panic until his sight suddenly returned. Freaked, he spotted Steve approaching and ran to his companion.

"No, Steve, don't go down that way!"

"Why?"

"The windows . . . they tried to steal my vision!"

There were no windows when Steve gazed down there. Several headless mouths growing from the walls gnawed on limp forms of color with horrible teeth. Steve could not tell what the colored forms were except they were long shapes. The floor beneath wallowed in a pool of soft liquid light. He closed his eyes for a moment and hoped when he looked again, everything would be normal.

But it was not. He took Matt's hand. "Let's just get out of here." They retreated to the nurse's station, tramping on fallen papers, struggling to ignore the three new shadows now cast along the walls and the floor.

"What is this place, Steve?" Matt did not bother hiding the terror in his voice and Parker could sense his anxiety. He stopped in his tracks, causing Frasier to do the same and he exemplified his leadership by taking a deep breath.

"Okay, I need to think for a minute."

"You know what those things are, don't you?" Matt stared at him with a hard expression. "You saw something there that I didn't, didn't you? Just like the morgue back there. Just like Chenobis-'

"YES! Matt." Steve shouted before he caught himself. He took a second to control himself, to calm. "I see things from time to time. Why I'm seeing them more frequently here . . . is something I'm trying to understand myself." He paused and glanced all about them; spying the fragment of Medbay, the vale of darkness, considering the home they passed though, the upper level, the morgue and the distressing dreams prior to his waking. Steve shuddered and thought about the female embodiment of the Matrix. No, not female; it just resembled a female. But why? Why would it come to him as something like that? Why did it approach him at all? And was it not above the gender-thing? And it spoke-but now Parker could not clearly recall everything, at least not yet. His mind still swirled with visions and confusion, with empathy regarding his Dokiah and Kyle's own confused state. They were here. This was reality, but it was twisted, like the guts inside a black hole.

Calmed, he now faced his companion again. "Here's what I think:"

"Okay." Matt braced for the strangest explanation of his life.

"I think that when the energy ribbon hit Cybertron, a similar time phenomena happened here-or at least the here of which this place is a part. I think the two events somehow crossed and twisted, forming a temporal reality that is constantly recreating itself." Steve paused and searched above for a sky or a ceiling but all he saw was a dark mistiness that swirled restlessly.

"And?" Matt pressed. But Parker did not answer right away. "Steve, I know there's more. What is it?"

Parker shook his head. "I don't have enough information yet, Matt. I think there's more to it. I think something else is involved here."

"You mean a third party, maybe the party that collected the files we looked at earlier by the morgue?"

"No. Not that. This . . . Thing does not bother with files. At least that I am aware of. No. There is another Darkness here." Just as he finished his answer, a shocking shiver hit Steve down the back and he gulped air. Without a word to Matt he dashed through the dark vale, back to Midnight.

Matt called him again and again, but Steve's heart and mind were on his Dokiah, in danger. He returned to the apartments and slid in his tracks. Xenomorphs covered Midnight head to toe like a clutter of spiders round a single helpless prey. Their bodies were clearly seen, their mottled colors shimmered in radiance. They were feeding off Midnight's energy. At first, Parker stood there, shocked beyond words or movement. That was not normal for xenomorphs. They should not have this ability! Then one Morph turned and hissed at him.

It was not a wise thing to do.

Abandoning all common sense, Parker gave a shout and attacked the hissing Morph. Its whipping tail snapped out but it was not enough to deter Steve's attack. It and he fell from Midnight's body in a somersault of arms, legs and tail. Steve landed on top and the beast whistled in a high-pitched tone but Steve promptly cut it off with a punch to its mouth, shattering several teeth.

"Get off him!" Matt hollered nearby but Steve paid no mind. The monster hissed and snapped, but Steve dared not punch its mouth again. He pinned it to the ground with his foot, balled both fists and struck down at the monster's nose. Suddenly he was pulled off and pushed away. Matt pinned the monster down by the neck and fired directly into its chest. The creature did not move again and a pool of acid leaked from underneath it.

"Goddamit, Steve, always shoot somebody before you beat them up!" Matt's eyes drifted from Steve to Midnight. "Holy mother of God," he whispered. "Where did they all come from? What are they doing?"

Steve did not answer. His visor fed him images of freaks with twisted bodies. Two of them shouldered double heads. Others had four arms or two and three tails. One morph beheld the world with four eyes.

Steve fired at the savage things, scattering them like a flock of carrion birds. But they came right back. Matt tried to keep his shots above Midnight's body. But all it did was enrage the hunt of xenomorphs and three of them leapt off Midnight, knocking the two men to the ground. Steve did what he could to keep the freak that pinned him from biting off his face. He even turned his weapon upward to shoot, but realized the acid blood would damage the suit.

A burst of light blinded him and with a squawk, the morph was blown off Parker. Steve jumped to his feet to see what happened. His first thought was that Midnight managed to blast the creature off him, but when Steve spotted Rodimus Prime's red chassis, he understood.

Voodoo picked and flicked morphs from atop Midnight as though they were fleas. Those morphs stupid enough to return were vaporized. Matt sat there on the metal floor and just stared at their rescuers. Steve sank to his knees, too grateful for words.

Voodoo grinned while Rodimus carefully examined Midnight. "You're welcome," he teased.

Without thinking, Steve blinked at the Sentinel, "How did you find us?"

"Magic." Voodoo automatically answered. "I sensed Mid's presence and followed the scent . . . sorta."

"And Kyle?"

"He's okay. So's Shan, and Kayla."

"Kayla?" Matt stood and checked his suit for damage. "Is there anyone else that's here? I mean, are we all-"

"No." Rodimus murmured his answer. He scanned Midnight's electropulse. "Several people from Medbay are here too."

"That's not the fun part." Voodoo added, "we found this, uh, alternate-reality Ultra Magnus up there."

"How's that?" Steve asked. He watched Rodimus carefully examined Midnight for external wounds or punctures.

"Well," Voodoo replied, uncertainty clouding his voice, "he said his name was Ultra Magnus and he looked like Magnus-"

"I'd hate to cut you off, V," Matt abruptly interrupted. "But I suggest we evacuate the area immediately."

The other three followed his visual path. A congregation of xenomorphs approached from the vale of darkness, leaping over one another in anticipation of a bloodfest.

"Crap!" Steve shouted. "Where'd they come from?"

Without an answer Voodoo moved to take up Midnight but Rodimus stopped him. "You take the other two. We can run faster and if something happens, you can fly them out."

Voodoo understood the logic, but he wasn't about to leave anybody down here. He helped Rodimus carefully collect Midnight off the floor as Steve and Matt readied their weapons to cover Rodimus' escape. Once Rodimus started moving, the other three followed, taking pot shots at their pursuers.

"Back to the house!" Steve shouted into the comline. "There's a case of stairs-"

"We know!" Voodoo answered.

Rodimus approached the two trees when a cloud of light shot out from nowhere and struck him hard. He fell to his knees in surprise and bowed over, sheltering Midnight with his own body. Steve and Matt skidded along the metal flooring behind Voodoo as the terrible shapeless cloud of light mutated into a set of yawning jaws. The Tentchi kissed the ground, calling their helmets from subspace as the light passed harmlessly over them and struck the obsessive xenomorphs. Their forms fried in the light's wake, their screams pierced Parker's sensors and sent chills down his back and arms.

Then it was over like a sudden storm come and gone. In spite of the protective armor, his skin hurt and his head ached. Steve slowly unfolded his huddled body and examined the area. The xenomorphs lay on the ground, nothing more than piles of dark dust resembling their former shapes.

Matt took to his feet, stepping behind. "What was that?"

"I-I don't know." Steve glanced at his companion before gazing skyward. "Maybe some alternate city defense system."

"That's one hell of a security system." Voodoo snorted.

"I don't think it was a security-"

Steve cut Rodimus off with a "What is that?" They all fell quiet, watching and listening until they all heard it; a faint scream followed by a cry for help in the distance.

"A survivor!" Voodoo surmised. His words were followed by the scream of a different voice. The four of them stood there for half a moment, very much indecisive. Steve did not want to leave Midnight alone with anybody. But if Rodimus were to investigate, it would leave he, Matt and Voodoo alone with Midnight. And who knows what else might be there to attack them? Parker sighed heavily, taking on the burden of investigator. Better that he leave Midnight with Voodoo and Rodimus. So without another word, he darted off. Voodoo and Matt called after him, but Steve ignored their pleas.

He cringed when Rodimus ordered him back, but Steve had made his mind. "Go on, I'll catch up," he called into the comline. Rodimus vehemently argued, but it did him no good. "I'll catch up, I promise," Parker insisted. He overheard Voodoo argue with Matt-that Matt was going nowhere. Voodoo would follow Steve himself. But Matt argued about Midnight's condition and that Voodoo was the only one who could fly.

Argument settled.

Matt caught up with Steve, a little perturbed that Steve would take such chances alone.

"I know, I know." Steve practically sang. He ignored Matt's grumbling and followed the readings on his scanner.

Parker led Frasier around a maze of half-places; a small grocery store, a parking lot with empty cars and a child's room stood eerily in the darkness with stuffed animals sitting on the bed, staring at the Tentchi. Matt shuddered when his maglite lit the eyes of a teddy bear. It sat there, seeming so innocent, but its eyes flashed with an evil light. Matt glanced up and found Steve already gone.

"Steve?" he called, "Steve, dammit, will you stop taking off like this? Steve?" He raced out and slammed head first into an invisible shield. He floundered around until his maglite found him, rolling from another direction. Frasier picked it up and pressed his hand against the shield. It remained steadfast, but it was neither glass nor plastic. He swung back, flitting his light to and fro, searching for his lost companion. Frasier took another avenue, steadily making his way down a street ally that opened into a wide empty area cornered by three metal walls.

There Steve stood, entranced by a light flickering on one of the large metal walls like a candle in a draft. Matt joined him and stared at Parker's blank expression, a little worried. The wall, however, stole his attention when a light flashed a scene on the wall as though it were playing a silent movie.

Chills pricked Steve's back and cold lumped the pit of his stomach. The event looked so real, so unreal. A huge room containing one table was crowded wall to wall with aliens of species Steve knew nothing about. At one side sat an elderly Spike and Carly Witwicky. Not far from them sat Rodimus and Optimus Prime and near them sat Ultra Magnus. Other aliens cluttered the table and each talked over one another in a flurry of either excitement or anger.

One alien jumped to his feet and drew a weapon, aiming at another party. Roddi rose, drawing his own weapon, shouting, though Steve heard nothing. Then one alien slammed against Rodimus on the right, causing him to fire. The fight between two other aliens caused his aim to go wild and he shot Spike, evaporating the Human's body entirely.

The alien next to Carly whisked her up and waved her about like a prize. The alien that sat on the other side of Spike tried to wrest Carly from her captor. The two creatures fought and wrestled until-

Steve turned away before he saw Carly Witwicky's death. His heart ached and his stomach clenched hard. Emotions overrode his thinking for the moment and he almost did not realize the wall fell back to its usual dark self.

Steve narrowed his eyes and dared to touch the wall. It felt just like any other wall on Cybertron. He used his suit to scan it and came up with no anomalies, nothing out of the ordinary.

"What did we just see?" Matt abruptly asked.

Parker shook his head. "Dunno. A ghost-image, perhaps. But it's hard to say. Might be a psychic projection of an actual event."

"A what?"

Another scream demanded their attention and Steve dashed first, leaping over a forest of dusty office furniture and broken living room accessories. The Tentchi rounded an empty plaster wall and traversed a short dimly-lit corridor which chopped off abruptly. The area cleared into another open space, lit from an eerie far-off glow, as though by firelight. Five huddled Humanoid figures stood against a far metal wall, cringing. At their feet lay three dead figures. The first figure's flesh had been chewed straight to the bone. Another lay as fresh kill. The third was currently yanked and masticated by powerful invisible jaws.

"Help us!" a female begged. The monster phased to visibility and it turned toward Matt and Steve and hissed. Repulsed by both its size and shape, Steve took a step back. It was not a morph as he had seen. Its monstrous size carried a pair of forearms that narrowed into a pair of powerful claws. Its jaw dropped below its neck and displayed a set of fangs the length of a man's arm. The rest of its body resembled a spider, truncated at the thorax. Four long legs scratched the surface of the flooring, creating a nerve-rending screech.

"There was an old lady who swallowed a spider, that wriggled and tickled and giggled inside her.-Gotcha! Game end, sister."

Steve and Matt turned and found Rodimus standing behind them. His optics burned bright blue. Gashes and dents marred the surface of his chassis. He looked as if he had crawled from the Pitt. He paid them no mind as he rigged a hand-made crossbow and aimed it at the freakish thing across the room. The morph screamed at him and Steve swore had there been any glass nearby, it would have shattered.

The morph started to charge the Autobot leader and Rodimus fired a vibro-arrow in its direction. But the thing swerved a hard right and retreated. Rodimus swore profusely and gave Steve and Matt a fleeting glance. "Love to chat, gotta fly." And he bolted after it.

It took a few seconds to register in Steve's mind what just happened. What the hell was going on! Why wasn't Rodimus with Midnight! Why did he leave Voodoo alone? "Crazy machine!" Steve spat. He hustled after, hoping Matt would just stay put and keep an eye on the survivors. He ran in near-blind darkness, hearing nothing but his own breath. Where did Rodimus disappear to? He encountered a dark wall and part of a floating ceiling. They stood in the middle of nowhere, so out of place like a well in the middle of a desert. Steve took a right turn and the world stretched into a long walkway broken three times by other partitions. He was completely alone, standing in an empty alien world. Parker recalled his helmet and breathed in the heavy humid air. His lungs wheezed with the sudden change in atmosphere. Steve's scanners warned him of massive life form readings to his left. But Steve saw nothing but an abyss of darkness. No flooring, no lighting except the same eerie fiery glow ahead. And no sign of Rodimus Prime.

Steve considered abandoning his pursuit and returning to Matt and the others, but he felt compelled to investigate further. He wanted to kill Rodimus for leaving Midnight alone-not that Voodoo was incapable, or anything. But dammit, weren't they in enough trouble already? Parker decided to advance just a few yards more before turning back. He didn't like leaving anybody, but dammit, if Rodimus was going to play games-

And that was when Steve realized something wasn't right at all. It wasn't like Rodimus to just do things like this on his own. It wasn't like him to leave his friends undefended. That went double for Steve and Midnight.

A caterwaul disrupted Steve's thoughts and several feet stomped and beat the floor so that Parker thought he felt the vibrations.

"GET DOWN!"

Steve dropped as the same spider-like morph came skittering his way. It roared and leapt for the edge of the abyss when something else whizzed in Parker's ears and smacked the alien's backside. As it flew into the darkness, the morph's body exploded. Steve recalled his helmet from subspace and still instinctively covered his head.

Two metal feet softly touched the flooring on either side of him and a heavy sigh followed. "It's alright. You're safe now."

But all Steve could think about was Midnight. He jumped to his feet and snapped back his helm. "What the HELL is wrong with you! You just took off like that and left Voodoo and Midnight alone? Rodimus! I can't believe you did that!"

Rodimus smiled in his usual easy-going fashion and twirled the crossbow once before attaching it to his backside. "Well, I don't know who you're talking about, but you're welcome. Now, who are you?"

The question caught Steve completely by surprise and he stared, dumbfounded. "Have you fried your logic chips or something? It isn't funny."

Rodimus Prime got down on his hands and knees and stared intently optic-to-eye at Steve. Steve recoiled. Midnight never stared at him in this fashion. It was very intimidating to see the face of someone so big this close. "I used to think I was sane. That was before the dreams started." Prime glanced up and about them, taking in the drear light. His optics narrowed as he frowned. "I'm pretty sure this is nothing but a dream. I'll wake up tomorrow and spend the day with Rusti or pushing pointers on digipads. Maybe I'll pull a prank on Mags. Haven't done that in a couple of weeks."

Distantly they heard an insentient scream. It sent chills down Parker's backside, but Rodimus Prime didn't seem the least bit affected. "In case you're here to argue about it, I saw It once in the Matrix; black and flat like Earth paper, and I called to It. But someone else gained its attention. Was it you?"

Steve about fainted. The Matrix! He swallowed air and blinked, longing for real light. "You're not . . . our Rodimus Prime."

Gracefully, slowly, Prime withdrew, sitting on his knees, staring at the Tentchi. The madness in his expression winded over him and was gone. "I am Rodimus Prime. Who're you?"

"A long story." Steve perked with a smile.

"Uhhuh." Rodimus' voice came coolly and he stepped away from Parker. "I don't have time for one of those." He turned and started walking on.

"Waitaminute!" Steve called after, "where're you going?"

"To wherever this stupid dream leads me."

Rodimus did not look back. Steve fought to his feet and ran after the Autobot. They passed several walls and the remains of three very large xenomorphs. Steve gaped at them, assuming this Rodimus Prime was responsible for their deaths. "You're not in a dream." he explained. "We're trapped in a bubble reality."

Rodimus glanced back, "you know, it makes sense. I go to sleep, I dream. I wake up, I dream. It's all coming clear, now. Thanks for simplifying it for me."

Steve crossed his arms. "What about the other people we left behind? I have to get back to my friends, but it's not safe enough to do it alone."

Rodimus lightly hit his own head. "Oh! You're asking for my help! Well, lemme explain a thing or two to you . . . what'd you say your name was? Sparky?"

"Steve. Steve Parker, Captain."

Rodimus smirked. "Okay, Sparky, I'm Little John. I lived in a huge city packed with 1.9 million people-that's Autobots, Paratrons, Humans and aliens. Suddenly, it gets dark, Op tells me there's trouble and he's gonna shut down the city, see? And then I find myself sucked straight into the ground, I have a fight with this . . . I dunno, a piece of black paper and blamo, here I yam!"

Steve ordered himself not to get perturbed at Prime's attitude. Obviously, he was very confused, just like everyone else. "Okay, let's try this again."

Rodimus narrowed his optics and held his out his hand, fingers spread. "Five seconds, Sparky. I'm a busy bot."

Steve nodded. "My name is Steve Parker, I'm here with my friends and Interface partners. The rest are survivors from the Cybertronian Medbay Facility. We're here on accident. I don't think it's a place at all. I think we're trapped in a dimension without solid foundation. I think the energy ribbon that crossed Cybertron created a time fracture and resulted in a bubble reality."

Rodimus held his hands out in front to ward off the verbal overload. "Okay, wait a minute. You lost me somewhere back there. Wanna rewind that and play again in slow motion? On second thought, no, I think I follow. You're saying we're Here, but Here is not really Here, but somewhere Out There, right?"

Steve only blinked, hoping he understood what Rodimus was trying to understand.

Rodimus relaxed his pose and pointed with one finger. "Okay, there was an emergency. Optimus and I had to shut down Fortress Maximus. I landed unconscious on the floor and woke later in this Wonderland from Hell that comes complete with monsters."

Parker did not know how to answer that. His heart rate suddenly jumped and for a moment, Steve felt his skin burn through the suit. He laid his hand on his chest. The sensations were coming from Midnight and Steve feared for his love. He hoped Midnight was not starting to fade. "I have a friend who needs immediate care. But if that monster is one of several you've already killed, chances are, even with Matt and me defending them, neither we nor the other survivors will make it back alive."

Roddi wiggled his finger and started back down the path. "Maybe you'd better see this."

Steve lost all expression. He didn't like how Rodimus suddenly became serious. He followed Prime down the walk and to the right. A blinding yellow light burned his eyes until they adjusted. Before him stood a very large, floating construct. In the space of abysmal darkness hung a zig-zagged honeycomb nest. Brittle dark walls secreted from the alien species filled the area before them and therein doctors, nurses, patients and other staff members from Medbay dangled in glowing cocoons.

Steve dared a few steps forward and scanned. His readouts gave him a frightening glimpse of what was to come: the dimensions of the nest itself were unrealistic. The number of life forms therein were undetermined, but Steve could tell just with his eyes and optic scans that he stared at something the size of a large town; stretching 10, maybe 15 miles. But rather than spreading out, the nest extended vertically.

Steve breathed in then breathed out. "What are we going to do? How much time do we have?"

"Not much. They've started building a bridge. Those things I've killed I think are merely scouts. These things come in all sizes and shapes."

Parker finally turned to the Alternate Rodimus. "We gotta leave now. We need you to come with us. There's nothing else around here for you to do."

"You're right." Roddi answered casually. "If I'm to dream of ghosts and little people and funny-looking monsters, I might as well play my role of hero." He started on the road back to the survivors, leaving Steve to linger another moment. To his relief, Parker spotted nothing more. No paper-thin monsters, nothing coming out of the walls eating what might have been Human souls.

He did, however, smile. Roddy was going to freak over this.

They returned finding Matt managed to keep the survivors calm, huddled against the wall. Steve did not feel it wise to discuss the nest in front of the others, spreading more anxiety and panic among them. He waited until Rodimus Prime volunteered to haul the small group of survivors back to Voodoo and Roddy. Steve and Matt sat quietly in the front seat as Rodimus carefully drove through darkness and grim light.

Matt didn't seem to know what to say in answer to Steve's discovery; either of Roddi or the nest. As they approached the ghostlike apartment area, Matt stirred with a deep breath. "You said we're in a temporal reality, Steve. Doesn't that mean that all this would soon just fade away and we'll be back to our own normal dimensions?"

Steve carefully thought it over, "I don't think I can answer that yet, Matt. I don't know enough about this place to say."

"And why is that?" Roddi asked out of the blue.

"Because it's a bubble reality and just about anything can happen. If things go badly enough, it might cause a fracture within this tiny universe and cause it to loop."

"Loop?" Matt searched for signs of their three robotic companions, but saw nothing.

"Loop." Steve answered, "as in causality loop. It means that events will start to repeat themselves over and over."

"I take it that's not so good." Rodimus added. "It means we'll get caught in it, doesn't it?"

Steve protruded his lower lip. "Something like that, yeah."

Roddi braked in front of the two trees outside the house and the passengers cautiously stepped out one by one. Roddi transformed as Steve took account their new companions. A middle-aged man assisted a cranky elderly lady. Two nurses from Level Two Organics wore confused expressions. One male Andorian came with almost nothing but a robe and underwear. Steve sensed their bewilderment and fear and wondered what Matt did to keep them so calm. It was then that Steve realized the Andorian was missing the right eye and antennae. It didn't seem to bother him; he moved around as though he didn't notice his eye was gone. But it gave Steve the willies. That was before he realized one nurse was missing the back of her uniform. Again, she did not seem to notice and somehow the uniform remained on her. The other nurse was missing her left ear and some of her hair.

What did it all mean? Did they come here 'incomplete', or was it an affect of the time disturbance? Parker's eyes shifted to the mid-aged gentleman and noticed he was missing nothing.

Matt sighed heavily. "Well, I don't see anybody. You don't think something happened, do you, Steve?"

His question was answered when Voodoo descended upon them in jet mode then transformed not so gracefully before them. Steve took note how the Sentinel cringed and wondered if something happened to cause him so much pain. Voodoo was usually more graceful than that. "So nice of you to join us, Captain Parker." Voodoo greeted rather icily. "Next floor: Organics Morgue, Personal Files, Floating panels, Two Godzillas, Dagger and Ultra Magnus." The opticless Sentinel paused a moment, staring at the Alternate Rodimus Prime. If he could, Voodoo would have blinked. Instead, he crossed his arms and took an offensive stance. "I'm not seeing this."

"Oops. Sorry, V." Steve muttered. "Voodoo, uhm, this is Rodimus Prime from another reality. Rodimus, this is Voodoo, Sentinel warrior, from my home . . . reality." Steve felt like laughing at his invented nomenclature.

"Damn." Voodoo softly swore. "He looks just like the real thing, doesn't he?"

"I AM the real thing. Now if you're done gawking at the latest edition to the Cybertronian space zoo, we can leave."

"Oh! He's good!" Voodoo retaliated, setting his hands on hip plates. "Not as brilliant in form as Roddy, but he's good."

"Ye-e-eah." Parker dragged. "Let's deal with the insult contest later and get everyone out of here, okay?" Steve did not know how much time Midnight had before he would fall into stasis, or how much damage he sustained to begin with. Parker inadvertently clutched his chest. If Midnight were to collapse into stasis, it meant the shields between them would fail and Steve himself would fall into a similar coma.

Matt grinned ear to ear, struggling not to laugh. He tapped up the floating stairwell first. Steve ushered the survivors ahead of him before he eyed Voodoo, hoping the Sentinel would give Roddi room to go ahead.

Matt arrived on the False Upper platform first, scanning for unwanted life forms just as the gentleman arrived. "No roaches up here." Frasier reported. He made room as the old woman and the nurses alighted. The Andorian puffed up next, followed by Steve and Prime.

"They fled when they heard me coming." Voodoo joked.

"Wait." Steve paused and glanced about them. His bright blue eyes shot in every direction, particularly the shadowy walls and the awaiting stairwell.

What?" Voodoo demanded impatiently.

"If it doesn't take us any brains to get up here, how easily could it be for the morphs to follow us?"

Matt growled. "Steve, can't we just think about our deaths later and rejoin Roddy and Mid?"

"He has every right to worry." Rodimus interrupted. "Those things learn fast and if they're assembled in a group, they teach each other. We'll have to invent new ways to attack them, keep them off guard until Pest Control arrives."

"There is no Pest Control." Steve grunted. He led the party back to the stairwell, knowing most of the stairs weren't there anymore. He supposed Voodoo and Rodimus would have to do all the lifting and carrying. Parker turned to Matt. "You and I may have to let the others go first, Matt."

"But I have a wife and kids!" Matt joked.

"Forget the wife. And you can always have more kids."

"What about my dog rover?"

"Your STUFFED TOY is safe at home."

TAP, TAK, TAK, TAP, TAK. The resounding, familiar hiss of approaching xenomorphs caught their attention. Steve drew his weapon and ran it left to right in a steady sweep. "Sounds like the nest heard their doorbell."

"NEST!" Voodoo startled. "You found THE nest! MY nest?"

Rodimus tapped him hard on the arm and signaled to get the others up the stairs. Voodoo realized he was making more noise than action and thought about transforming. But the very idea made him wince in remembered pain and he decided to simply carry their guests in his hands and fly up. He aided the survivors first then gave Steve and Matt a hand before hauling Rodimus. But Voodoo was running low on energy and could only carry Prime as far as the stairs started from under the next level. Rodimus didn't question the action. He leapt for the first floating stair and dashed up. He waited for Voodoo to follow and once the Sentinel was safely on the upper level, Prime shot the stairs into fragments while the scout xenomorphs wailed in frustration far below them. Roddy turned to his companions, not meaning to ignore the one nurse who wept in fear. Steve stared into the dark abyss swirling around them.

"Where to now?" Prime asked.

Steve turned to Voodoo with the same question in his eyes. Voodoo pointed right and there floated another case of stairs, this one far shorter than the last two.

Matt grunted, "I feel like I'm lost in some demented video game."

"Go!" Rodimus ordered. Steve and Matt aided the weary survivors as Voodoo fled up and Prime tagged behind for safety's sake. Voodoo touched the upper level first then held his hand out to Steve as a warning.

"Heard something. Hold back there." The Sentinel advanced cautiously, his scanners set on high. He knew he heard something, but it was already gone before he could identify it. Maybe it was a morph. Maybe something worse. Maybe it was 'noise' from Kyle, but with the shields he carefully held between them, Voodoo didn't think he'd hear much more from his Tentchi than his voice.

No. It wasn't Kyle. Voodoo dared several steps more, paying no attention as Steve and Matt allowed the others up. Rodimus followed suit, making sure he had enough room to act as back up in case Voodoo was ambushed. The darkness seemed to clothe their skins in spite of the red emergency lighting.

"We're going to die!" the one nurse wept. "Oh gawd, what's going to happen to us?"

Steve clamped a hand over her mouth, "Shh!" He waited for something to leap out at them. But nothing called his attention either with his own senses or from the Transformers' sensors. They waited and watched and waited more. Gradually, one step at a time, Voodoo led them back to the file cabinets.

"Oh gawd, no!" the nurse wailed again. "More stairs? We don't have to climb these, too, do we? Do we?"

"What's your name?" Voodoo asked directly.

"Haynie."

"Haynie. Haynie, would you please shut up?"

Steve shot Voodoo with his burning blue eyes. "Voo-" but he got no further when the cabinets sunk down under extreme weight. From their right, behind the stairwell, a laser sounded, slamming into the cabinets, missing their targets.

The 'weight' abandoned its invisibility shield and bellowed in the direction of the attack. Steve about swallowed air and yanked Matt to the ground. "Get down!" he shouted to their companions. Most of them obeyed as a stream of concentrated acid spewed from the over-sized xenomorph's mouth. Haynie screamed as the morph's voice blasted. It was matched by Dagger's engines as he tore forward in jet mode. He stopped abruptly spotting Rodimus and Voodoo below him. Rodimus charged the morph as Voodoo stood over their Humanoid companions. Dagger transformed and landed hard. He kicked the morph in the face as it leapt for him. Another laser zapped from the right and Ultra Magnus leapt from almost nowhere, slamming his huge body square into the monster's middle. The morph screeched and the two slammed the floor, bone and metal scraping metal. Magnus dodged as the morph spewed another stream of acid. He socked a fist into the morph's neck then swiftly side-stepped as Dagger darted from behind and kicked its hind quarters.

The morph hissed and swung around, mouth wide open, steel teeth gleaming wet. Rodimus took advantage of the second and aimed a shot into its throat. The impact knocked the creature off its powerful legs, sprawling like a bug hit once by a rolled news paper.

Another caterwaul sounded above them and the group simultaneously gazed skyward. Another morph radiated soft light from its body. It hung upside down from the metal ceiling, clinging to it with long deadly talons. It jumped from ceiling to stairwell to floor and assaulted Ultra Magnus. He plunged in a painful grunt. Voodoo leapt to his rescue as the other morph assailed him. But Dagger intervened and blocked the first morph from Voodoo's path. Dagger groaned as the morph bit deeply into his shoulder. Magnus struggled to get his foot under the glowing creature's underside with no success. The monster hissed and acted strangely. Rather than end Magnus' life, it pinned him hard and settled on top. It radiated a soft light, somehow causing Magnus's optics to glow. He acted as though he were suffocating.

"Voodoo!" Steve cried. "It's draining his life force!"

Voodoo slipped his hands under the morph's neck and yanked hard. The monster gurgled and its tail came to life. Voodoo swore profusely when the tail slashed his backside, causing sparks to snap and fly. Rodimus jumped in and the two managed to peel the thing off Magnus. They had to clamp one foot on either of its triple-jointed legs and pin its arms behind its back so that all it could do was threaten; Roddi barely held its powerful tail down by his foot.

"What do we do with it?" Voodoo called above its roar.

Rodimus glanced about them then nodded toward the other direction. "Into the abyss!" They dragged their clawing captive to the brink and heaved it over.

Dagger kept his morph at bay by transforming from under it and taking off. He zipped back and fired at it, trying to be careful so as not to hit anyone else. But Dagger miscalculated the morph's power and swept down too low. The morph lunged on Dagger's backside, nearly causing Dagger to crash.

Steve and Matt collected the survivors and ran toward the morgue. Two seconds later, Dagger collided into the multitude of file cabinets when Roddy landed on top of the creature. The three of them smashed hard in a cascade of limbs, metal fragments and paper. The morph stood first, leaping effortlessly from the ruin to leveled battleground. It roared then aimed another stream of acid at its attackers. The two Transformers rolled out of the way as acid melted cabinets and set paper on fire.

"Hey, Rover! I gotta Scooby Snack for you!" Roddi drew his crossbow as the morph turned to him. It charged and he waited until it opened its mouth to spew acid then he fired. The resulting explosion sent blazing pieces of morph in every direction. Rodimus quickly brushed several fragments off his chassis and ignored the bits of acid that sank through his exostructure. Voodoo approached and watched as the rest of the Morph melted into the floor under it.

"Commendable job." he congratulated. "Messy, but commendable."

Rodimus turned with a wry smile. "Is that a compliment?"

"Pfft! Not you! I'm telling the morph how I liked the way it died!" And Voodoo stomped off.

"Yeah, right." Rodimus did not lose his grin. He set the crossbow back and stepped lightly over 'morph bits.' "Is everyone present and accounted . . . for?" Roddi stood face to face with Roddy and stared.

"Whoa." Roddy breathed.

"We're in trouble." Roddi answered.

Magnus joined them a moment later. He, Voodoo and Dagger glanced from one Rodimus Prime to the other until Voodoo folded his arms

"And how are we supposed to tell the two of you apart?" Voodoo took notice how Matt stood not far away and watched, but Steve was not to be seen.

"I'm the dirtier between us." Roddi bragged. "You can call me Roddi."

Roddy gave them a thumbs-up. "Works for me."

Dagger groaned. "Gods. I can't handle this."


	3. Chapter 3

TRANSFORMERS:

Sentinel Arc: One Breath, Two

Chapter 3

Rusti plunged into lukewarm water. She sank slowly toward her death. Seconds stretched like years.

She tried to breathe; mistake Number One. Water filled her lungs.

She tried to open her eyes. Mistake Number Two. It wasn't water, but Transformer blood.

She tried to cry out for help. Mistake Number Three.

Rusti fought to clear her mind as images drilled themselves into her. She tried to lift her hands to ward them off, to keep her mind to herself. But someone else's memories forced themselves upon her.

Another . . . phased behind Rodimus and grabbed him round the neck. The other alien yanked Rodimus off his feet and jammed a vibro-spear straight into his chest.

Rusti came up for air . . . she lost wind with the impact of Rodimus' submersion. She slammed her head against a bulkhead, her back against a fallen railing.

Scream! Scream, dammit! It'll be the last thing you do in life! Scream! And the girl gasped for breath, for some measure of air to fill her lungs. Her hands grasped nothing. She arched her back, pushing her way through the watery blood to taste the air cold on her face and she finally screamed.

Kyle rushed to the girl's side and fumbled about his exo-suit for something, anything to help her. Sweat soaked her skin and drenched her hair. She screamed as though tormented.

Kayla leapt over two chairs and rounded three people to get to Rusti. She searched the girl empathically for some part of the child's mind that still reasoned. Rusti's eyes shot wide open. She gulped air, coughed, and wept hard. Kayla embraced her tightly and rocked, trying to sooth her distress with soft words.

Gatchel approached the couch and leered at Kyle. "It'll be a miracle if we survive without incident, the way that girl carries on."

Kyle eyed him sternly through dim lighting. He rescued the girl not more than two hours ago. Loud noises emanated from the stairwell just beyond the rest area, frightening everyone. Kyle and Shan investigated and Kyle caught the girl as she fled from an invisible enemy. She fought Scott, mistaking him for another pursuer. She screamed incoherently and shouted Optimus Prime's name several times until she collapsed. Her attacker nearly knocked Kyle off his feet when Shan intervened and decimated it with a single clean shot.

Now it was a matter of getting Gatchel to calm down enough to forgive the girl's delusional outbursts. "She's ill and needs better care than what can be provided here."

Gatchel tossed his chin toward the ceiling. "Well, there's a small inconvenience for your genius, Doctor Scott! Maybe one of your oversized tin-canned friends could graciously build you a nice little office complete with scanning equipment, exam table and a microwave for popcorn. Or! Or maybe they decided to ditch us entirely for something else to do . . . like calculate the meaning of life, love and the pursuit of happiness."

"That's enough." Kyle warned.

"It is?" the C.M.O. dared. "Alright. Well, what do you plan to do about the rest of us, Doctor Scott? What can you do for that lady, Mrs. Strills that's missing an arm? Or that alien, Beldoun Tor, that's missing three fingers and some of her hair? Or what about all of Miss Shanygn's little invisible pets? Do you think they've figured out by now that we've changed addresses?"

Shan punched Gatchel's shoulder and in the dim light, Kyle could see her dark eyes narrow dangerously. "Why can't you shut up? You've done nothing but whine like a starved puppy the minute we landed here. Is it really too much to ask you to just zip it?"

"As a matter of fact, it is." Gatchel glowered and rubbed his shoulder. "We have a food and water situation and here the three of you huddle about this . . . child while there are others who require attendance. He turned to leave then glanced back, "Tell me, Doctor Scott, isn't there a place in hell for Little Blue Riding Hood?" He retreated before Shan blew up again.

"That bastard's gonna end up MARRYING a xenomorph before the night is through." she spat.

---------------------------------------

Rusti gradually calmed in Kayla's arms. She blinked against the darkness as her body shivered with fever. Rusti tried to guess where she was; maybe in another part of the EDC complex, a part she'd not been to before. Maybe she was in a different area of Fort Max altogether. That would not be so odd; Fort Max was huge. But these people were unfamiliar. The lady who tended her, Kayla, she heard the name, and Doctor Scott, wore armor unlike any she'd seen before. In fact, none of the people around her seemed familiar. Most of them wore hospital attire. The other doctor that argued with Scott wore a strange triangular emblem on the left arm of his white coat.

Rusti took another deep breath to bring her nerves under control. Voices came and left her mind and music . . . music?

Music? Where the hell was the music coming from? She opened her eyes and found Kayla momentarily gone. A small sphere no larger than an adult male's fist floated in the air and cascaded light upon their limited world. In the area of its direct influence, the light brought out brilliant surrealistic colors as though from a crazy computer program. In other areas, where the brightness faded, the red emergency lighting took precedence and washed that part of the world in blood. Rusti rolled to her right, away from the back of the couch. She and many other people resided in the rest area in what was the reception lobby of Fort Max's Central Command. Rusti recognized the plants and the four couches and six cushioned chairs. There were three tables burdened with magazines and a small cabinet offering coffee or water. Most resting places were already occupied by several people. In the background Rusti picked out various sounds of coughing, someone complaining of pain and a fussing baby.

Who were these people and why were they here?

Rusti did not hear Doctor Scott approach her. She wondered how the suit managed to move so quietly, even over metal flooring. "How are you doing?" He asked softly.

She stared at him, considering her own physical condition. "Okay, I guess." she answered quietly. "Where are we? What is this place?"

"We don't know." Scott answered in the same soft voice. "We hoped you might tell us. You're the only person we've encountered from your dimension who isn't frozen." She did not know what to say to that. Everyone was frozen? What kind of cold touched them? Why wasn't she affected? She read a kind smile from the doctor's face. He seemed fairly young for a doctor, maybe somewhere in his forties. "What's your name, hon?"

She liked it when he called her that. "Rusti." she whispered.

"Rusti, can you tell me what happened, what was the last thing you remembered before everything changed around you?"

In the back of her mind, a shape emerged from the darkest of the Dark. No, it was not Freak, for its face beheld the world without eyes. Freak had at least something that resembled an eye.

"I was doing homework."

"Homework?"

"Yeah. I'm in high school."

"And what happened after that?"

Rusti tried to recall but images of the eyeless thing filtered through her mind. The girl could not tell if she were imagining its presence, or if it were naught more than her imagination, playing with the light and shadows of their shelter. She imagined the creature or thing slithering along the walls. Its body stretched to unrealistic lengths.

Kyle watched as her confused expression shifted to uneasiness. "What is it?" he asked.

"Shadows in the dark." Her voice barely reached above a whisper. "Desire without substance. But I don't know what it is. Something is here."

In spite of his doubt, Kyle stood and scanned the room with his eyes. Nothing. He returned to her. "What are you sensing?"

She shuddered. There were too many signals confusing her. Pain lanced through someone's body as though a million tiny spears stabbed her skin. Cold lay at the edges of walls so that even the walls betrayed them; there was no place safe. A Something hunted, but It could not decide which road to take first. An insatiable anger, longing for release, tumbled over and over in someone else's soul.

Rusti merely covered her face with her hands. Something tugged at the back of her mind but she could not figure out what was wrong. She was forgetting something. And the girl knew the second she'd remember, she'd spring to life. But now her head throbbed again and beckoned her to sleep if that was possible. Her chest ached with a dull pain and Rusti remembered the heart attack she had (or thought she had).

Then sadness tugged her soul; "There are no little girls on Cybertron, Doctor Scott. Did you know that? No sunshine, no trees. Just metal, cold air and darkness. No wonder Optimus stayed on Earth. Now I think I understand why. So many people ask him that question but the answer belongs to him and he won't tell them because they think Cybertron is a wonderful place; only because it's so different. It's so sad."

A scraping sound touched Kyle's ears and his scanners jumped to life.

"Movement!" Shan exclaimed over their comline. He answered her with a silent spring of motion and scanned the room.

Rusti wanted to crawl away and hide. But pain in her chest expanded to her shoulders and forced her to remain still.

Kyle rotated in a slow, steady circle, giving his scanners all the time they needed. But whatever was among them had already fallen still. "What was that?" he asked Roddy's Interface.

"Beats me. But it looked pretty big."

"How big?"

"Don't know. Ten, maybe fifteen feet long."

Kyle almost couldn't repeat it: "Long?"

"Long."

Doctor Scott's scanners showed Spellbinder searched for movement. He registered the Sentinel's slow moving form, then three survivors arguing quietly among themselves as they sat in the sand at the 'half-park.' He found Shan at the far side of the room, sweeping the walls with a maglite. Kamrath and a nurse tended his baby. There was the floating staircase from where he rescued Rusti. Just a few yards from it, the dead xenomorph lay against the western side of the room, its acidic blood slowly sizzled the carpeted floor. Gatchel and another survivor quietly conversed as the C.M.O. rewrapped the patient's wound. But the scanners picked up no other movement.

Kyle frowned. "Kayla," he called softly. He pressed his lips in a wry smile when she locked eyes with him. "I'm going to walk the area. She silently nodded and he departed.

Their so-called sanctuary was fairly large, if it were a room at all. From the southern end, the metallic walls stood steadfast, dim, glaring back the red emergency light that shed from no visible source. Not far from the corner of the western side lay a lightless void. Something inside Kyle warned him not to venture the dark area; not to touch it. He examined the space but the equipment registered nothing; no substance, no mass, not so much as temperature. Puzzled, Kyle searched his suit for something to throw into the void. He found an ink pen and tossed it. At first the pen simply floated there in mid air, as if it were stuck or maybe an invisible hand caught it and taunted Kyle's fears. Then the pen scrunched in on itself, imploding.

Kyle blinked and slowly backed away. The sight unnerved him. Scott traveled along the eastern side of the room, crossing the open doorway leading to the corridor where Rodimus had been caught in the wall not far from where he stood. He paid no attention to the planets, or rather, half-plants,

"Kyle, what are you doing?" Shan's sudden call nearly caused the doctor to jump out of his skin.

"Looking around. Why?" He knew he came over a little defensive. But that would not bother Shan. She was the queen of defensiveness. Shan gave him an answer, but he did not hear it. The metal paneling to Kyle's right caught his attention and he passed the mouth of the hallway. Here is seemed the walls reflected the whole room like a mirror, though it didn't seem photonically possible. That is, there wasn't enough light for them to be that reflective. He stared at his own faded reflection and wondered why the walls would behave so oddly.

"Kyle, are you paying attention to me?" Shan's voice was not as sharp as it could be. She wasn't irritated so much as concerned.

"Yes, Shan. I heard you." Again she said something, but her voice faded as though in a dream. Kyle flinched when he watched his reflection peel off its gloves and palm the wall as though it were glass and he were trying to get through. Kyle backed away, freaked. He swung around to see if there was anyone behind him playing tricks. But everyone else remained in or around the rest area under the relative safety of the anti-grav light. Scott dared another glance back at the wall and found his reflection naught but a silhouette.

He returned to Kayla and Rusti.

"What's wrong?" Kayla whispered.

Kyle's dark brown eyes drifted from his friend to Rusti and shook his head, uneasy. At the moment, he really had no words for what he had just seen. Kyle knelt and scanned the girl's vitals as though searching for a sense of normalcy or assurance that what he saw in the wall was naught but his mind playing tricks in the dark.

Rusti's heart raced. Her temperature stood at 101 and her brain readouts were over-active. There was something else Kyle had not seen in a long, long time; a double frequency reading with missing properties. That was to say scanners picked up life wave-patterns uncommon to Humans. And Human she was, but somehow something less. Kyle met Kayla's glittering golden eyes: "She's missing the gamma-wave life force, Kayla."

She batted her eyes in disbelief. "She should not even be alive!"

Kyle did not have an answer. His eyes drifted past the blouse Rusti wore to the strange exo-suit underneath. He wondered what properties it possessed that might have confused his scanners. Maybe it was the reason she was not locked in time/space like others of her home dimension. Then his eyes caught sight of her naked hands and discovered her finger nails tinted soft blue. It wasn't nail polish; not when the skin beneath also shined with a light blue.

The girl woke and moaned softly. Kyle sensed she was in pain and secretly prepared a hypo. "What did you say your name was, hon?"

Rusti gazed at him with glassy, dilated eyes. "Rusti Witwicky."

"Witwicky?" Kyle repeated. "As in Spike Witwicky? Are you his daughter?"

She slowly shook her head. Her heavy eyes were not going to permit her to stay awake much longer. Her pounding head nagged her. She had forgotten something, but still Rusti could not remember. "He's my grandfather."

Kyle almost couldn't ask: "Daniel . . . Witwicky?" She wearily nodded. "Rusti, I'm going to give you something for the pain, alright? I think you're in shock and this might help."

"Sh-shock?" Rusti repeated. Kyle smiled warmly and moved to touch her neck with the hypo when the girl weakly parried. "Wait a minute . . ." her eyes narrowed:

"I SUSPECT THE SHOCK OF IT WOULD BE TOO GREAT TO BEAR AND THE MATRIX IS STRUGGLING TO KEEP IT FROM ME." It was something Optimus said. She could not recall when he said it, but the words disturbed her. Something about insanity . . . a chill ran down Rusti's spine and her skin tingled with pain.

And the walls crawled once more.

"What's wrong?" Kyle intended to give her the shot. She was very sick and he already guessed what it was, but he needed to test her to be certain.

"The walls are moving again." she whispered.

But no one's scanners indicated as such. Still, Kyle was not willing to take any risks. He turned a 360 but found nothing. There was, however, a new 'black pocket' he had not noticed, edging along the northern wall, close to the playground. "Well," he sighed, "there is a shadow or darkness to the north. I'm not sure what it really is . . ."

He said something more, but Rusti did not hear him:

"IT'S A SHADOW IN THE DARKNESS. THE MATRIX IS HIDING IT FROM ME." There was fear in Optimus' voice, but it was discernable only to those who knew him better than the average Autobot.

The memory of a paper-thin alien in an elevator seeped back into her mind and Rusti's blood ran cold. Her breath would not come. She'd forgotten all about Optimus! How selfish could she be to forget that her friend was in pain and in danger and waiting for her to return!

Before Kayla and Kyle could hold her down, the girl sprang and dashed across the room, rounding three and four people. "Rusti!" he cried after her.

She clambered up the floating stairs as Shan and two nurses gave chase. Kyle pressed through the crowd when Rusti screamed. "Don't hurt her!" he ordered.

One of the nurses caught and 'dropped' and swiftly pinned Rusti to the floor. She winced as Rusti shrieked. "Control yourself!" the nurse bellowed.

"LET GO OF ME! OPTIMUS IS SICK AND I WON'T LET HIM DIE! I WON'T LET HIM DIE!" The girl squirmed under the nurse's slightly overweight body and when the lady reached to trip her again, Rusti kicked her in the face. She shoved the nurse with such strength, it surprised Kyle. He and Shan raced after as Rusti scrambled up the stairwell, not reaching more than eight steps before she lost her footing, slipped, and pushed herself up again. But she fell once more and made a third attempt before Kyle caught up with her and shot her with the hypo.

She weakly slapped his chest and wept. "Optimus is in trouble, you bastard! Let me get to him! Let me get to him!" Her adrenaline dissipated and Rusti wilted in Kyle's arms, a bundle of nerves, exhaustion and tears.

Three steps down, Shan gasped for breath, "Girl's a spitfire." Both Tentchi fell deadly silent when their scanners picked up movement. Shan stared intently at her scanner and traced the movement, twisting round in a half circle. Kyle's eyes jumped from wall to wall. He felt precarious, standing on the floating steps, looking nervous as though the Boogeyman were to appear from nowhere. Doctor Scott wondered if the movements came from the other side of the walls, or maybe within them.

Kayla gently pressed her way between the two nurses and offered to relieve Kyle of Rusti's burden. But the doctor did not give the girl up immediately; his head snapped to the right, eyes resting on the dark void against the southern wall. Maybe it was only imagination or paranoia, but his empathy warned him of another presence. Kyle handed Rusti's limp form to his head nurse and checked his weaponry as Kayla returned to the rest area. Amazingly enough, none of the survivors seemed to hear or notice anything out of the ordinary. On the other hand, most of them slept, or sat in quiet patience. Spellbinder sensed Kayla's anxiety and he too started to discreetly scout the room.

"I think we should get everyone upstairs." Kyle quietly suggested.

"I don't think they'll go along with it." Shan argued. "There was already evidence of morphs from above."

Kyle had no answer. The world around them seemed so still, so quiet. Both Tentchi held their breath in anticipation.

SKITTER, SKITTER, SKITTER, TAK.

It was all Kyle needed. He leapt down, following Shan, and called his helmet from subspace. Glancing left to right, he shifted visual frequencies from infrared to ultra violet to thermo and finally the migraine-inducing negative vision.

Shan followed his movements, scanning in opposite directions. Spellbinder copied them, remaining inconspicuous but he still traversed the room in a slow, methodic pace. It would be a bad idea to upset the survivors before there was something to be frightened about.

They cautiously made their way to the outskirts of the rest area, carefully avoiding any confrontation with Gatchel. Most survivors failed to notice them, either that, or they saw what Kyle and Shan were doing, and must have figured the two were merely keeping an extra eye out. Nevertheless, Kyle was glad no one jumped to conclusions. He glanced to Kayla. The glare of the anti-grav light bathed her in harsh shadows so that he could see only a part of her, mostly her horns and armor. She sat on her knees, clutching Rusti in her arms, prepared to flee at a moment's notice.

A dark shape the length of an office desk darted across the room. Several pointed legs tapped eerily along the metal plates, nearly faster than Kyle's scanners could track it. The creature scuttled for the small group of people who made the playground their own rest area. Shan gasped for breath to warn the five survivors, but the attack happened before her voice touched the air.

The heedless patient flipped backward in a muffled scream, kicking uselessly as her attacker shed its natural cloaking device, revealing its mottled skin color and spider-like shape. The woman's screaming companions bolted.

Three more 'skitters' scratched the flooring and Shan jumped, firing several times until she heard a squeal like that of a huge rat. Smoldering acid wafted into the still dark air and the invisible target faded into view; a very large face hugger. The lady Tentchi examined her handiwork, heedless of the frightened crowd of survivors. They all clamored against the far wall, crying and shouting in anger, mostly directed at her and Kyle.

Doctor Scott joined her a second later and carefully examined the smoldering mess. "I don't think it's quite so safe here any longer. But I'd hate to just leave here without knowing when Steve and the others will be back, Shan."

The blue-skinned lady glared with icy eyes, though it was not meant to be mean. "Kyle, you and me have dealt with these things several times before, long time ago. You know every bit as well as I that almost nothing will stop these things short of a blood bath. They will dig and scrape and do anything to get to their prey. And they're not stupid. That means, we should not be stupid, either."

"THAT'S IT! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Some male's voice echoed a bit too loudly in the room and before Kyle and Shan could react, an alien male turned on Mrs. Strills and punched her several times in the belly. She grunted and collapsed. The alien turned to yet another patient, Malcham Tach and they locked grips and tumbled on the floor.

Tach took to his feet, dragging the furry tan alien with him. He gave the attacker exactly what Strills just received then kicked the alien in the gut when the jerk fell to the floor.

Kyle and Shan pushed their way through the ring of people. Shan barred Tach from attempting another assault. Kyle checked Mrs. Strills as she lay curled in pain, crying into her one arm.

"What is going on here?" Shan demanded.

The furry alien coughed hard and gagged as he struggled to his knees. "I'm going to end this for everyone once and for all!" Then he seemed to snap out of his lapse of pain. A light sparked in his eyes; the type Shan recognized: "We're already dead! Those things aren't going to go home just because we closed shop for the day!"

Shan stooped low enough so she could shout loudly in his face: "YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING!"

Gatchel would have added a quip of his own had not the whole group heard the frightful skitter-skitter sounds of another occupant in the room. One of the nurses started whimpering fearfully. "There's another one out there!"

Kyle fingered for her to come and attend Mrs. Strills. "I suggest we all move up the next floor and leave some kind of note for Rodimus Prime and the others." Silence. Kyle could not tell if the group thought him mad, if they did not understand what he said, or if they were trying to think of a reason not to go up.

Beldoun Tor groaned and rubbed her face. "I don't believe this. You suggest we shouldn't worry; that we'll be fine as long as we stay here and together, and now you turn right around and say we should find some place safer? What kind of people ARE you?"

Kyle spoke before Shanygn, "This is not the time to argue about decisions. If we leave now, we'll have better chances of staying alive."

"Ah! Now the truth comes out!" Gatchel declared. "You really can't protect us, you were only lying to keep us all together! Nice job, Doctor Scott! Or should I remind you that the girl you're suddenly so fond over was CHASED by one of those morph-things?"

Another face hugger skittered along the floor, closer and closer. Why were these idiots all of a sudden against leaving?

"What is WRONG with you people?" Shan blurted. "Do you want to die or something? Are you that stupid?"

"There'll be more of those things up there!"' Strills shouted, "If we stay, we die. If we go, we die-"

"That's not true," Kyle intervened. "So far we've encountered only one morph and it's dead. Now, shall we depart, single file, calm and collected?"

The unspoken answer to his question was 'no.' Kyle realized the skitters he, Shan, Kayla and Spell heard did not come from the floor, but along the walls. Kyle activated his maglite and pointed toward the corridor. For a moment, Kyle thought the floor wavered like a hot desert road cooked well-done on a sweltering summer's day. Several plates were torn from their bolts as invisible claws shredded through, driven by insatiable hunger.

Shan and Kyle leapt outside the rest area and shot at the invisible intruder. A screech ensued followed by a loud thunk. But rather than finding blood, the two Tentchi watched iron-like claws mar the walls, puncturing the sheet-metal as if the walls were made of pie crust. The morph escaped their shots and crawled along the walls as easily as an insect on wood. Kyle called his helm and watched through negative vision as a nine-foot creature scurried effortlessly toward the group.

To kill this thing, Scott would have to be a very good shot. Its plated skin had the ability to deflect laser fire or, worse, absorb it with no ill effect. Kyle clicked his rifle for a single power-draining shot and fired. The creature shrieked once, shocked. The xenomorph's scream cut short when the monster vaporized. The survivors recoiled as acid smoldered into the wall or drooled along the floor and sank into it, leaving a thin line of smoke behind.

The survivors finally realized their danger. A few gathered what precious belongings they had and herded straight for the stairs. Luckily, Kayla already made her way up, bearing Rusti in her arms. But some people were not so calm. Shadrik and his brother dashed up the stairs too quickly and Dillon lost his footing. He slipped off the railless stairwell and thumped to the ground. Shadrik, a boy of unruly tendencies, laughed.

The floor vibrated with the scratches and scrapes of impending intruders. Several more survivors jumped, expecting something to break through and grab them by the ankles. They huddled like hunted fish. Kyle, Shan and Spellbinder also gazed upon the ground. None of them thought of checking the floor for trap doors, emergency compartments or air vents.

The first few morphs smashed their way up from the panels near the corridor. Kyle and Spellbinder jumped between the survivors and their potential killers.

"Let's go, people! Move!" Shan pushed several people along the stairs as she took pot-shots at their enemies. Using negative vision, Kyle fired at the arms and legs of their pursuers. For the most part, it seemed neither he nor Spellbinder did much good.

One morph attacked him directly. Kyle deflected with a jaw-breaking kick. It rebounded and snapped a second row of teeth in his face. Kyle ducked and fired at its underbelly. He instantly rolled aside as its blood watered out.

Scott hoped their armor, designed for heavy combat, would be enough protection. He shot three more creatures several yards away before another morph assaulted him. Kyle punched its muzzle with the butt of his weapon then fired straight into its mouth. A warning light flickered on his rifle, indicting low power. The one shot he used earlier was about to cost him. Kyle decided not to alarm anyone; he'd simply have to use other tactics.

The survivors slowly made their way up the stairs as though they were treading a path to pain and death. The problem was most of them did not trust the floating, railless stair case. They kept eyeing the steps, expecting them to collapse, tip or bounce under their weight.

As the crowd advanced, more xenomorphs ripped the flooring like so many baby demons in a hatchery. Twenty or more morphs clamored about Spellbinder. He picked them off one at a time and flung them away, but other creatures copied the first few and they piled on him like a pack of antibodies on a disease. Spellbinder fell to his knees as the monsters absorbed his energy.

Shan kicked and shot morphs left and right, leaving the floor a horrible, smelly, melting mess at the bottom of the stairs. Their acidic blood eroded the flooring until a hole started to appear.

Kyle narrowly escaped a pounce, kicked another assailant in the mouth and shot a third as it leapt for him. It didn't seem either he, Shan or Spell would make it to safety. The air wavered a moment and bounced off Kyle's visor, disrupting his concentration and made him very light-headed.

No, that's not what really happened because he blinked as though returning to consciousness. Something fluctuated across his vision like a camera's glass lens wobbling out of focus then back in again. Kyle blinked the disorientation to no avail. He stumbled to his knees, unable to keep his balance. He bowed over, burying his face in his metal-gloved hands, heedless of his impending danger. Kyle's bones hurt and the world tipped slightly in one direction, then another. He focused his eyes upon the eastern wall forgetting he, Shan and Spellbinder were fighting. For a second, the doctor thought he spotted something black and flat poised against the wall; something like a thin sheet of paper, slanted and sliced into sharp, rigid angles. But the next time he blinked, Kyle did not see it. Another 'wave' hit and this time it forced him to remain still. The anomaly freaked many of the morphs into inactivity. They lifted their oblong, eyeless heads and glanced about like a pack of wary dogs.

"What was that?" Kyle weakly asked his two companions. His words came with effort because it felt as though something were pressing hard against his chest. "Did either of you see or feel something strange?" He took a closer look around, dully amazed the morphs were not attacking.

"Don't talk so loudly." Shan snapped. Her head pounded furiously so that she could not do more than bow over and press her hands to her head. Her vision blurred and her nose bled.

The moment did not last long enough, neither Kyle nor Shan had the strength to fight. From the corner of his eyes, Kyle spotted slow movement. He sent his gaze west, straight ahead of him, and watched as the wall swirled then bulged as though something tried to press through. A moment later, a shape erupted as though the walls vomited. The shape bucked and wriggled as though struggling to break from a great metallic cocoon. A monstrous snake-like xenomorph with a body as big around as a truck tire formed from the rounded cocoon-like mass. With a venomous hiss, it scuttled along the metal plates, keeping close to the walls, gaining speed with every yard of its advance. It rounded the corners of the southern wall, heedless of other morphs and the two Tentchi watching it with astonished silence. The snake-morph passed the doorway to the adjoining corridor and drifted off course, aiming straight for Spellbinder. Then it moved lightning-fast, striking the Sentinel and rent a gash into Spellbinder's left hip plate. He moaned and crumpled. The attack was so sudden that he did not have time to raise shields to protect Kayla and high up on the twenty-seventh step, Kayla slipped, nearly losing Rusti to the floor below.

Kyle fought the disorientation and forced himself to Spell's aid, though his movements were slow and deliberate, staggering as though drunk. Again, he was amazed the other morphs did next to nothing as he stepped over the carcass of one and rounded another. The morphs themselves stared at the snake-monster. The great morph reared high, nearly touching the ceiling, and shot straight for Kyle, probably because he moved. Kyle used what remained of his weapon's power and aimed as close to its mouth as he could. While the weapon did no damage, the great beast did not like the pinch of laser fire and snapped away, racing along the walls in a mad fit, like a train out of control. Kyle watched in dreaded fascination as the animal hissed to itself and slithered, heedless of anything else around it. The xenomorph's behavior was far from the typical behavior patterns of its species. But then, the morphs themselves were far from normal. It was possible that the mutation caused a shift in the species' behavior, too. The snake morph disappeared straight into the 'shadow pocket' on the southern wall. At first, Kyle thought it would get lost there in the space of unreality, maybe not even return.

But he could not have been more wrong.

The morph emerged a moment later, still bearing a snake-like body, but now it was accompanied by several powerful legs. Kyle could not recall seeing anything like it and the sight of it shocked him into momentary inactivity. He was brought out of it when the monstrosity leapt out. It was not aiming for him, but another morph that presently fed on a victim Kyle could not rescue in time. The snake-beast ate the morph in a single snatch then finished off the morph's meal. Satisfied, it raised its terrible long, eyeless head and hissed at Kyle. When it hissed, all other morphs hissed in turn and Kyle's blood froze his body.

It leapt and threw its head back, stretching its jaws for a strike. Kyle dropped and rolled out of its path as the enormous head bulleted for him. It slammed one leg forward to pin him. Instead, it slashed through Kyle's armor, slicing along his right thigh. Kyle lay dead still. A horrible fire raced through his veins and he thought his body would explode. He faintly heard the tak, tak, whap of morph claws scampering across the room. Scott forced his watery eyes open but squeezed them shut when two bright sparks flared, burning the air with a pure white light.

Xenomorphs about him squealed death-screams. Kyle heard several swift thumps and an ear-shattering shriek before something gripped him over the chest and dragged him away. He was dropped against hard metal and opening his eyes again, he found his eyesight gone.

Someone shouted at him but Kyle could neither answer nor move. Strong arms dragged him up; he become a puppet, unable to operate on its own. Then it dawned on Scott; he had been poisoned. He ordered his body to move but nothing worked. Two voices shouted in his comline; he recognized just one of them.

"Shan! I'm NOT going to argue with you! You either get up those stairs or I will PICK you up-NOW GET UP THOSE STAIRS!"

"Sstevvve." he managed to slur. His was half lifted, arms wrapped him tightly and dragged him up the stairwell. His feet hit the lip of every step they took. Kyle did not think about counting, but they passed several steps before his sight faded back. He struggled and they stopped climbing. Steve rested a moment as Kyle weakly recalled his helmet into subspace. He took a lungful of bitter air. The first thing he saw were Parker's vivid blue eyes, trying to read into him.

"We're here, Kyle." Steve searched his friend's face for recognition, but Kyle's eyes registered only bleak acknowledgment. Parker was amazed Scott managed to recall his helm, but the Doctor did not speak. His pale face burned cold with toxic shock. Steve's eyes darted down and watched as Magnus and Dagger wrestled with the mutated snake-morph. Survivors above and below him trudged up the railless, floating staircase. Between Kyle's weakness and Midnight's deteriorating condition, climbing became difficult for Steve. He gathered his resolution and forced himself to haul Kyle to his feet. But Kyle's strength deteriorated with each laborious step and Steve feared it would not be long before he too would be unable to move.

Twelve feet below, the snake-beast roared a high-pitch cry and bit Magnus' arm. The Major-general cursed with words unsuitable for prudent ears. The Autobot and Dagger thrust both their shoulders into the creature's chest, sending it flaying against the wall. Voodoo joined them a second later and the three of them pinned the beast as the two Rodimi fled from the corridor to the stairs, chasing the survivors.

Matt clutched Shan tightly about the waist and dragged her step-by-step. She could not or would not cooperate; either way, the large man had a difficult time with her. Matt caught Steve's concerned expression and nodded upward, silently ordering Parker to keep moving. He could handle Shan just fine. Steve wore down further as another of Mid's shields collapsed. He paused a moment, catching his breath, trying to force back the burning fire that slowly devoured Midnight's life force. Kyle softly moaned, distracting Steve from the moment. He tucked his arms under his friend's back and lifted Kyle. Parker pressed upward, slowly trailing the crowd ahead. Matt followed with Shan in his grip while Roddi followed Rodimus along the staircase.

Rodimus glanced over his shoulder at their three accomplices still fighting the snake morph. "Dagger!" he called, "let's go!"

The snake morph had wriggled out of Dagger's and Magnus' grip and knocked the Major-general to the floor. It aimed for Magnus' head just before Dagger shot its side. The giant morph whipped away. Dagger looked puzzled. This morph acted more strangely than its smaller counterparts; it seemed to be playing games.

Then Voodoo leapt away to help Spellbinder and that attracted the giant morph's attention. It bounced on its belly, tucking its multiple legs alongside its body and swiftly scuttled after the two Sentinels.

"Crayph!" Voodoo shouted and he dodged the attack, dragging an injured and exhausted Spellbinder with him. The snake-beast hissed eerily as though speaking and rolled once on its back, still moving along the floor like a living locomotive. It chased after the Sentinels until Magnus decided to take the chance to cross the room and kick the beast in the side. It recoiled and shot up, its head bending back so that its eyeless face nearly touched the ceiling. It seemed almost an intelligent reaction.

"Get up those stairs!" Magnus bellowed. Voodoo did not argue. He followed the two Rodimi, dragging Spellbinder along.

The snake morph flipped itself backwards and rather than attacking Magnus, it shot back for the western wall and hissed like a cat in a tantrum. Magnus glared at Voodoo and wordlessly pointed at the staircase. Voodoo didn't argue. He lightly stepped over puddles of melting metal and morph carcasses but paused when two 'little guys' tried to tag at his heels. He kicked one into the air and shot it as it flew then squashed the other flat. The burning sensation was painful, but Voodoo merely winced and trudged up the floating staircase.

Magnus waited until Voodoo was about ten steps up before touching the first two himself. He wondered where the snake morph had gone. There was a pocket of darkness to the southern end of the room where neither the emergency red lighting or the anti-grav light penetrated and Magnus assumed that's where the beast retreated to sulk.

The very next moment the monster emerged from the darkness, changed yet again. Not only did the morph sport several legs as before, but now wings graced its backside. Magnus spit out another cuss word in a different language and shouted at Voodoo: "MOVE!" He raced after the Sentinel, turning every third step and fired powerful shots at those steps he left behind. The xenomorph didn't seem interested in him at the moment. It winged about the room, scooping up the smaller morphs into its mouth and munched on them like hard candy.

Then Magnus slipped on one step, clanging down two. He held on for dear life; all the other steps were blown away. The clanging of his body against the floating metal stairs attracted the monster morph and it snapped its head about. Magnus softly cursed himself for being so clumsy. But as he pulled himself up, he found he slipped on a puddle of blood.

The snake-now-dragon monster leapt into the air and shot right for the Major-general. He struggled to get back on his feet, but was not quick enough and the beast whacked him off but not hard enough to send the Autobot crashing below. Magnus dangled in the air. Voodoo raced back down and fired at the dragon but the beast merely squealed loudly, protesting. It dipped and caught two more little morphs along the ground before sailing back toward them. Voodoo tried to haul Magnus up, but could not get the necessary leverage to do so.

"Go on. I'll be alright." Magnus assured him.

"No way. I'll get into trouble for leaving someone behind."

Magnus grunted with effort and started swinging his legs. "Just keep that damn thing off me!"

The creature took flight again, squealing and hissing. Its mouth dropped for another attack. Voodoo aimed a punch but then thought better of it when he considered there was no wall or rail to catch him in case he stumbled from impact. He shot at the airborne morph, hoping to distract it enough to pass over them and make another round. Instead, the creature intentionally slammed into the steps just below Magnus, grasping them with its powerful legs.

"Alright," Magnus groaned, "now we're in trouble."

From several steps up, Dagger left Spellbinder. He leapt off, flew through the air, and landed on the morph's long sweeping headpiece. It bucked and shrieked terribly, slamming its chest against the steps as though it would rid itself of the sudden burden. Dagger's wild tactics gave the other two Transformers the time they needed. Voodoo backed off, giving Magnus room and the Major-general swung his legs back and forth until he had enough momentum to swing up and land on the steps, easily as an acrobat. Upon that move, the morph dropped off, Dagger still on top, and drifted down.

Magnus swung around and produced his laser rifle from subspace. Voodoo slapped his hand down. "No! You'll kill Dagger! Let me handle this you go on up and finish the job."

Magnus wanted to say something, but he didn't know what Voodoo had in mind. The dark blue Sentinel dove off the stairs in a somersault and transformed to jet mode. He tailed the morph, move for graceful move, then sped up and flew right beside the beast. Magnus watched, fascinated as the Sentinel butted himself against the beast and by the second assault, Dagger rolled off, fell several feet and transformed into his dark jet mode. That made Magnus realize he needed to move fast; destroy the rest of the stairs and follow the others to safety.

Voodoo and Dagger played aerial tag with the beast. It flew about aimlessly at first and just when Voodoo felt it was not going to do anything more, it let out a terrible shriek and its tail lashed Voodoo's underside, leaving a dark mark along his metal skin. The moment of pain distracted him and Voodoo fell out of control until Dagger shouted at him. The Sentinel realized what was happening and he corrected his course. The monster morph followed him and the two Sentinels started an ascend-and-drop pattern, hoping to catch the morph off guard just long enough to shoot it. But the snake beast proved a little less predictable and it started slamming itself against the walls as though it were stupid enough to run into them.

Dagger was about to make a remark when Voodoo noticed the creature's oblong head started to split right down the middle. "Oh no." he muttered. "Dagger, time to go."

"What? What now? You afraid of Miss Flying Snake or something?"

"Yeah-you could say that." Voodoo shot after the survivors,

passing them to the next level. Dagger transformed and landed on

the stair rail behind Magnus who dragged Spellbinder with him as he shot the steps.

"What's wrong?" Magnus asked as he blew another to fragments. The power required to do this was quickly draining his weapon.

"Don't know." Dagger took Spellbinder's languid form and watched the beast below as it kept hitting itself senseless against the walls and once on the floor. It paused momentarily and ate three more incoming morphs. Magnus eliminated five more steps before Dagger noticed the beast's wound grew longer, now trailing along the length of its body. "What the hell is it doing?" He wondered softly.

"Keep going, soldier." Magnus ordered. And they advanced another ten steps just as the beast split asunder with a final chilling scream. Dagger and Magnus paused in their ascent, staring at the two halves of what was one whole morph.

Within seconds, the two halves healed and new legs sprouted from that side from which it split and wings unfolded from both their backs and now two flying xenomorphs occupied the same space where there was one. The two Transformers bolted up the remaining stairs, Magnus still shot them one, sometimes two at a time. The two morphs gyrated upward, their bodies entangling one another every few yards.

Dagger arrived at the next level as Rodimus and Roddi carried Midnight to a safe, dark corner. The former Seeker set Spellbinder aside and found a lone bulkhead standing in the middle of nowhere. He started pushing it toward the stairwell entrance.

"HEY!" Gatchel shouted above the clamor of survivors, "Are you stupid! That's our only means of escape!"

"Not anymore." Dagger kept pushing with all his might until Magnus emerged, blowing up two more steps. Then the two of them set their bodies against the huge slab of metal and shoved until the slab lay securely over the opening. Dagger leaned his back against the bulkhead and slid down, exhausted. "That was bad."

Voodoo stepped in front them, his mouth down-turned in dread seriousness. "We need to look for food and water for these people. Now."

Dagger shot him a sharp look. "Do you mind? I just escaped with my aft in tact."

"Midnight's condition is deteriorating. Steve is growing weaker and Kyle has been poisoned. We don't have time for private celebrations, Dagger." Voodoo stared hard at him. Fear for Kyle drove him into a dangerous mood. He wanted to phase Kyle in, but dared not.

Dagger might have said something more, but the moment was interrupted when Kayla's voice carried over the group of moaning and frightened people: "No! No, Rusti, come back! Rusti!"

Voodoo and Dagger exchanged optical contact again. "And we have a babysitting problem." Voodoo added.

Dagger groaned. "The world is coming to an end and all I wanna do is rest."

Exhaustion caused Steve to drag his aching body as though each step were an insurmountable mountain. Kyle struggled to walk under his own power. Poison boiled his blood and more than once he slipped and would have fallen, taking Steve with him had Matt not managed to pass other survivors and come up behind him. At first the three Tentchi made some progress, none of them dared look to see how far they had to go. But about twenty steps shy of their destination, Kyle's breath failed him and the world faded from sight. Steve caught him as he crumbled, but Parker was too weak himself to carry Kyle the rest of the way. Matt gently lifted the doctor and tried to avoid stepping on Kyle's blood as it ran unbidden down the steps. He tucked his hand under Kyle's knees and lifted him up entirely. Steve managed to follow, ignoring the stares and glances of those around them. He could not sense them as usual. His whole focus was on Midnight and Kyle as their pain taxed his own strength.

Eight steps from the next level, Kayla descended and tucked her arms about Parker. He laid a weary arm across her strong shoulders and let her do the guiding. The world they emerged into stood bleak. No red emergency lighting touched this place and were it not for Kayla's eyesight, Steve would be flaying blindly. She eased him down and he just vaguely heard her give several people directions. Then a familiar but unpleasant voice spoke to her in mean tones.

Gatchel. It had to be. Steve moaned. He had no energy to defend Kayla against that jerk and he vowed to have a 'discussion' with the good C.M.O. later. Parker closed his eyes and imagined how many people poured up from the stairwell. Somewhere far away, Steve heard laser fire.

"Steve, here's some water for you." Kayla's sweet voice filled the air like a fresh, gentle scent.

"What's that noise, Kayla? And where are Mid and Kyle?"

"That . . . Other Ultra Magnus is eliminating the stairs on his way up. Kyle is right here. And Rodimus laid Midnight not far from here."

Steve's brain tilted one direction then tried to swing another. His heart pounded. "Kyle, Kayla. He's um, he's been poisoned." Kayla pushed him down and for once, Steve offered no resistance. He heard the sounds of a detaching device and the hissing of a hypo. Then something pinched his own neck and Steve fell to darkness.

Kayla backed up when one of the two Rodimi approached on his hands and knees. "Are they going to be okay?"

"Yes. I gave Kyle an antidote. Steve just needs rest. How about Midnight?"

"Your dark friend walks in places I would not go."

It wasn't their Rodimus. Kayla felt funny talking to someone who looked exactly like someone she knew. "What do we do now? What's going to happen?"

"Yes," Rodimus agreed. "We need a plan, don't we? Lemme think a moment." He was silent for about six seconds. "Yes. We need food and water for all the little people and we'll have to set up a defense parameter; there's enough of us to do that. Oh, there's Mangus and Dagger now. Excuse me."

Roddi met up with Magnus and the other two alien Sentinels. They stared at him as though something weren't right. He brushed aside his annoyance at their stares and folded his arms. "Well, we're all hail and hardy. I think it might be a good idea to start a scouting party."

Magnus tucked his weapon back into subspace. His cold expression reflected their distressful situation. "The closest wall to us is only thirty feet away. Dagger and I just closed off the only way in or out that I can tell. There will be no going down."

Roddi nodded. "You blew up the floating stairs."

Voodoo glanced behind and quickly scanned the settling survivors. Darwin Kamrath's baby fussed and cried. "We need to find whatever supplies we can or our Humanoid companions will dry up and blow away."

"That's NOT funny, Voodoo!" Dagger spat.

Rodimus stood between them to ward off any potential fights. "Hey, hey! Nobody means anything here, Dagger. Just relax, alright? I'll take Voodoo and head west around Midnight's position. Magnus, if you would, take my hot-headed friend here and go north. But I'm afraid that leaves you by yourself . . . um, Roddi."

"'s okay! I can baby-sit myself." Roddi gave them a thumbs-up as Matt Frasier approached the group of metal giants.

"Waitaminute, I'm not going to leave Dagger here by himself. I'm coming, too."

Roddi bent over, almost trying to be considerate, but, as Voodoo noticed, this Alternate Rodimus Prime didn't seem exactly himself. "We need someone in armor who can ward off the Boogeyman." and Prime pointed toward the rest of the group. "They need to be protected. Can you do that?"

Matt's face turned to annoyance. "You want me to play babysitter?" He was interrupted when they heard someone scream not too far from the rest of the group. Voodoo and Rodimus acted on instinct, both transforming and flying/speeding toward the maze of darkness and wall partitions. Matt frowned and took note that Gatchel was not to be seen. "I'll take that as a 'yes," he grumbled.

Taking Rodimus' and Voodoo's actions as a cue, the other three Transformers split up. Magnus and Dagger turned 'north', or whatever direction lay to their right. The world of light under which the survivors huddled, faded from their scanners as they tracked their way to whatever end lay ahead. But not more than half a mile away, all the walls and barricades phased out as though they were passing from a forest into a clearing. The metal floor remained dark, punctuated by floor panels that might have led to Max's underside, (if this part of the bubble universe indeed contained part of Fort Max).

Dagger switched modes and landed gracefully beside Magnus, still in his carrier form. The two stood and just scanned for several long moments. The world lay dead still like a desert under a lightless sky. No movement, no sound, no light. Magnus finally transformed and his movements gave Dagger the surges because in the dead of quiet, they seemed so terribly loud. Neither mech wanted to say a word, fearful the silence would swallow their voices.

"It's so quiet." Dagger whispered. "I don't like the quiet." He inwardly reached for Matt's presence and found comfort there. He embraced his Tentchi's spirit and took reassurance that they were going to be alright.

But Magnus did not have the benefit of Interface. He faced his fear dead on, produced his laser rifle, and pressed forward. The City Commander resolutely reminded himself he was a soldier and had a job to do. He heard Dagger tail him, stepping in a nondescript foot pattern. The dead stillness seemed to swallow their souls, casting them into a limbo without form, object or life form.

One step. Five steps. Three steps, eight. Pause. Magnus scanned their surroundings then proceeded. Three steps. Two. Four steps, eight. Dagger took the lead this time and swept his weapon left to right in a cautious scan. He waited and Magnus moved ahead. Six steps, eight. Pause. Scan. Twelve steps. Pause. Dagger's turn. The darkness did not end. Only their scanners gave them enough information to continue since their optics could not give them any information. But there was nothing, nothing. A metal desert, a dead silence.

Magnus took three steps. Dagger followed with two. Pause. They scanned.

The scanners indicated their footsteps from behind; tiny energy signatures but ahead there lay nothing. No flooring. No air, nothing. Dagger dared to shine a light in the void's direction. "What is that?"

Magnus silently shook his head. The light should have either gone forward or reflected off something. But it was swallowed up by a nothingness. The City Commander stared and the thought that came to him, the one thought he dared not frighten Dagger with, was that they might be staring at the edge of the bubble universe; a wall to their cage.

---------------------------------------

Rodimus thought about shifting into automobile mode. But he decided he didn't feel like it. Slipping in and out of shadow and light seemed almost a game to him at first. This whole dream, being trapped in a dream within a dream, certainly twisted and turned in new and unusual directions. He knew Rusti was here, but he could not believe it was really her; not when . . . well, he just couldn't believe she was here. Several yards out of light-shot from the group, Rodimus sank to his knees and stared at the empty floating wall before him. Its darkness swallowed his whole vision and he thought he could just fall into it and extinguish his spark.

Total non existence.

The hums of haunting songs filtered into his mind. He could hear the musical echos emanating from the Matrix. It trickled into his soul. A soft pleading voice spoke incoherently into him. But Roddi could not make out the words. He could not answer her, either. The song: dark, disturbing, pain-filled, chilled his soul. He thought he could fall into that song. Each echo was another level down, down . . . down to where he'd not try to guess. The anguish, though, the anguish of the voice roused his own grief, but something else inside him pushed the sorrow away. He cried enough tears in his life. He lived through enough hells and the cry-baby stage needed to pass.

But rather than the sorrow, Roddi's emotions twisted and scraped along the floors of torment and disease. Oh, how filthy he now felt! His soul became polluted in dirty memories. Malice, vengeance, hatred . . . they all collected along the structure of his soul and Rodimus thought he would rot away like a fleshling; a disgusting sordid carcass devoid of color and how it stank!

Repulsed, he flinched, his face plates folded in horror and he clutched his chest. Why didn't anybody tell him!

WHY!

WHY!

The sorrowful voice came back and its slow soft resonance filtered poison into his soul and if he could, Rodimus would have vomited. The poison twisted the sorrow. The sorrow shifted and solidified into a more intense emotion: anger.

YES, GODDAMIT! He was angry! There was nothing he could do about the eking poison, nothing he could do about the damned dream from which he could not wake! He was angry at losing his other life. He was angry that Optimus was not the same. He was angry at the way his people were treated and were treating he and the other leaders. The Autobots were idiots. They had no sense of gratitude.

Oh, he'd show THEM gratitude!

The poison twisted above him and churned in a slow boil like oil over white-hot fire. Sorrow, like hydrogen, pressurized and solidified into anger and anger was what Rodimus became. He was helpless and it made him angry. He was sick and it made him angry. He was dying and it made him angry. He was being fed upon and it made him angry. He didn't know what IT was, and It made him infuriated with hatred.

Boil, boil, trouble and toil, cold white heat. So hot that it turned cold and turned him inside out and oh, the sin of it all. Rodimus drank in poison and mutated it into death.

And had anyone been watching, they would have seen his hunched form, on his knees before the wall, turn cold and grey as though his spark died.

Then Rodimus took in a deep breath and all his color returned but his optics remained dead dark.

Kayla watched Rodimus as he parted from her, tip-toeing his way around the survivors toward Voodoo. Movement to her left caught the Kshi nurse's attention and Kayla spotted Rusti just as the girl leapt to her feet and scampered into the darkness. "No! No, Rusti, come back! Rusti!" She lunged to her feet, the metal exo-suit tapped along the metal flooring with small klank-klanks.

Shan caught up just as they both lost sight of the girl. Shan activated her maglite. "Damn. She sprints like a namphry, doesn't she?"

The two ladies split up in their customary search pattern, cautious as not to lose sight of one another. "Rusti!" Kayla called.

"Rusti!" Shan called with less fear in her voice, "this is not a smart thing to do." She shut her mouth just in case she and Kayla were rousing the interest of unwanted pests. The blue lady slowly swept her light side to side then she froze abruptly. From the other side of a frozen Transformer, she spotted a light, flickering left to right in the exact pattern as she just used with her own. "Rusti?" Her voice did not come as loudly as it should have and Shan could not decide whether or not to turn her light out. _Roddy, something's out here. I don't think it's the girl; she didn't have a light-at least that I know of._

_Come back to me, Shan. _

_Wait a sec, okay?_ She pressed forward, carefully setting her weapon on stun in case she fired at the child. The flickering light kept drawing her closer and closer before it vanished altogether.

Shan flinched, now cold. Was she just seeing things? Where did the light go? She ran, ignorant of several tall frozen statues. She did not see Air Raid, or notice Sunstreaker's form as he stretched toward the ceiling. The walls standing dutifully by created a labyrinth of half-places; half an office, half a Human-sized restroom, half a storage facility.

WHAM! She ran straight into a solid black wall. Shan crashed hard on her back, losing wind. It was a good thing her helmet was on. She moaned, stunned, and sat up, annoyed the girl would lead them on a fly-by-chase.

The light caught her attention again and though Shan could see it, the zipping strip of light did not cast shadows from objects, neither did it illuminate anything it touched. Then a dark copy of herself appeared in the wall. It seemed to fade into existence, but the light that should have been there about her own form, died in the reflection. Shan scooted back in a panic, forgetting to grab her fallen maglite. The reflection moved, but only to copy those same movements she made minutes ago. Metal-shod feet tapped lightly behind her. Shan recognized Kayla's foot patterns and did not bother to greet her. She feared if she turned away, the bizarre image on the wall and the flickering light behind it would disappear.

Kayla knelt beside her, a hand across her chest. She did not notice Shan's maglite laying by itself a few feet away from her. "Are you okay?" she huffed, "I can't find Rusti. I've looked everywhere." Kayla stared at her friend, expecting some kind of answer. When she noticed Shan kept staring at the wall before her, transfixed as though under a spell, she too gave the bleak structure a glance. At first the Kshi saw nothing. It was an expanse of nothingness. Then a flicker of light caught her eye but she did not see the same thing Shan saw, or thought she saw. The flicker was actually her own reflection, following the actions she made a moment ago-dashing to Shan, sinking to her knees, laying her hand over her chest piece, asking if she was okay, but no sound came from it.

Kayla knew better than to touch something she knew nothing of, but she could not resist the temptation. She glided her gloved hands over the surface of the dark barrier. It rippled like water, lucid and soft. Then it solidified and a flash of light shot at the two of them. The ladies flinched, Kayla softly cried out in surprise.

The image of Shan blacked out and as though it were a wide-screen TV, the wall flashed stilled pictures just like a slide show. The face of a being of light came into view. Its whole naked frame resembled something like that of a Greek god. His face shone with power, with a finely-sculpted jaw and perfect kissable lips. His dark hair flowed freely about his powerful shapely shoulders. His smooth firm chest portrayed the greatness of masculine pulchritude.

But the next slide showed him in combat with a great warrior clad in dark, spiked metal, bearing a terrible glowing sword. Before the ladies could see greater detail, the picture flashed, showing the 'Greek god' eating the other warrior's neck and the blood pouring from the warrior's body splattered as though . . .

But the images moved faster as if the ladies were watching someone else's history blink before their minds. Then the images collaborated into a moving picture and a great creature of firelight appeared before them. A face contorted by demonic madness pushed its way from the middle of the firelight. Its eyes sucked in all light, its mouth opened like a chasm in hell, starving for whatever lay in its path. It raced through the galaxies, devouring one star system then another, stealing the power of every life force it encountered, defecating hunks of dark matter in space. The fire-creature raced for a particular solar system and crossed a lunar battlefield where Autobot and Decepticon forces exchanged fire. When it passed overhead, all of them fell dead grey. Then it paused and both ladies heard the wall thud with its attempt to escape. Kayla screamed.

The firelight creature roared in violent protest and slammed against the barrier between it and they time and again and Kayla took to her feet and tried to get Shan to do the same. But Shan would not move; her eyes remained fixed to the Greek god staring at her with dead black eyes. It beckoned her to him.

"Shan!" Kayla called but her voice died thereafter when the firelight creature split in half and faded down, down, down. She didn't want to look. Kayla feared the power on the other side of the wall and did not want to guess how it was possible, even here in this twist of time where the rules of the rest of the universe did not apply. The walls, metal monoliths distorted by the time bubble, could not be gateways. Not by any logical, scientific means. But she still did not want to look. And Shan did not want to budge.

Using the strength of her exo-suit, Kayla finally decided to just haul her friend up and carry her away. She stood Shan up, but Shan caught her off guard and twisted her chin about so that Kayla was forced to look into the wall.

There they stood, their reflections cast no light, even Shan's abandoned maglite reflected nothing. Their dark reflections began to distort, stretching up then out, then the muted colors smeared like wet pain. Kayla shook her head. She didn't want to see this! "No!" She wrested from Shan's grip and that action brought Shan back from her trance. She realized something from the other side tried to possess her and Kayla's insistence on breaking free, snapped the connection in half. Shan and Kayla turned to flee but something stretched from the wall, gripped the ladies round their necks and dragged them in.

Only Kayla could scream.


	4. Chapter 4

TRANSFORMERS:

Sentinel Arc: One Breath, Two

Chapter 4

Spellbinder watched the other Sentinels, Magnus and the Alternate Rodimus Prime, quietly depart for parameter checks. He hoped they might find food and water and maybe, just maybe, a way out of this dreadful unreality. He sat slumped against the wall opposite the sunken rest area where the survivors, now fewer than before, tried to make the best of a terrible situation. Gatchel yapped orders and encouragement, often with the same breath. The C.M.O. seemed to target those people who were younger than himself and seemingly more physically capable. Dillon and Shadrik Delahoussaye griped and snarled at him. Not that Spellbinder disagreed with their dislike of the doctor, but their help was needed for those people who could not really do much for themselves.

What irritated Spellbinder was how Gatchel glared at him now and again, as though expecting him to jump from where he half-lay and assist in moving furniture or other heavy objects. But between his wound and depleted energy reserves, thanks to the morphs, Spell needed to allow his repair systems time to work.

Matt Frasier returned after tagging the other Transformers. He looked like a puppy left home for the day. The Tentchi met with Spell, intentionally ignoring Gatchel's calls, and leaned against the wall. "How goes it?" he asked in a grumpy voice.

"I'm alright. I'll live. It was quite the blow and I'll need patchwork when we get home. When do you think the others will return?"

"I don't know. Soon, I hope." Frasier paused a moment. His eyes darted back and forth noticing how Mrs. Strills tried to comfort Beldoun Tor, while she instructed the one-eyed Andorian how to make a cloth diaper for Kamrath's baby. "Spell, did Kyle ever say why some of these folks are missing bits and pieces?"

"No, not that he's told me. He's just as confused about it as we are. I daresay none of them seem to be in pain, however."

"Where's Shan and Kayla?"

"They . . . 're running after that girl . . . Rusti." Spellbinder frowned as Gatchel finally approached them, his face a solid fix of frustration.

"Well, we're all so very glad the two of you are supervising our work, Colonel Frasier. Maybe I could employ your physical assistance, too?"

Matt smirked, "in doing what, Doctor? You seem to be doing just fine." But Gatchel was not amused. Matt pushed himself from the wall. "You're right. You need help. I'll take a couple of people with me and we'll go look for water or something; if any exists."

Gatchel nodded toward Spellbinder. "Maybe your toy whirlybird there can assist you, Colonel. Seems to me he can do things the rest of us aren't able at this point."

"Not really." Spell answered levelly. "My repair systems are working and I need to rest."

"Oh!" Gatchel actually did not seem that surprised. "Offline, are we?" He frowned and walked away. "I'll go look for the two female Inter. . . whatevers. Maybe **they** can do something."

Matt watched the Doctor tromp off. He wondered how the jerk ever became chief medical officer of Medbay's Organics wing. It was too obvious Gatchel was prejudice against aliens. Maybe when the parties responsible hired him, they forgot to look up his entire background. Or maybe he dazzled them with such brilliance they could not help but hire him as the C.M.O. Nevertheless, Matt knew Steve would lecture him if he beat the jerk off to a pulp-especially in front of the others.

Shan came to first, finding herself and Kayla locked in a world divided by shadow and light-shadow. She boldly stood. Nothing seemed out of place, but it all felt out of place. It was the light; had to be. The light came in different directions, but incorrect directions like the floor from one source, then the wall, shafting in straight bold angles as though from a window. The other light came from nowhere and seemed to go nowhere. In the next room, Shan spotted her maglite laying on the floor.

Oh, that was no room, it was the other side of the wall.

Wall? She spun about. Was it a wall or a gateway? What kind of world was this?

Kayla came to and pushed herself from the smooth grey floor. "What was that?" she asked in a start. Her eyes rested upon Shan and she calmed. The Kshi felt her soul drifting in a world of black and white, where shadows crept along in tense, sharp edges. The horns curling from atop her head, rounding her cheeks felt strangely cold and tingled. She slowly turned about until she and Shan met gazes. "What dragged us here?"

Shan merely shook her head. She approached the wall from where they entered but found it solid like glass. She pounded it to no avail. "Well, I guess we'll have to wait until someone comes along and finds us here."

"That doesn't mean they'll be able to free us, Shan." Kayla tried to reach Spellbinder, but found the link cut like a dead phone line. Her eyes drifted across every nook and cranny in their prison, searching for doors or other rooms, but there seemed to be none, and yet, there were no walls to speak of, only angled spaces of light and dark, like standing in a geometric puzzle.

Shan shuddered. "This is unnatural." She explored all crevices and creases around them, as though expecting to find a hidden passageway.

"No," Kayla whispered softly, "this is very natural. We just don't recognize it." Shan threw her a sharp look but said nothing. Kayla passed her hand from light to shadow and back. No temperature change came with either, but something lit and darkened her hand in each case. Her horns tingled as though touched by magic, or, better yet, the fire of life force. She drew a deep breath and wondered how it was they were breathing at all. Surely in such a world there couldn't be any oxygen! But she took another anyway and stretched with her senses, feeling the odd shapes and their colorless planes. She tried to imagine their temperature, but instead of heat or cold, Kayla picked up a heartbeat.

She held her breath. Now THAT was unnatural. She pressed her back against what might be a wall, were it not for the fact that it dipped a few inches down and back up like a finely cut prism. She searched for the heartbeat, watching Shan's movement grow more and more slowly.

Don't keep us here, she thought to no one in particular. We don't belong here. The panel to her left, the farthest end of the room, slid open and a huge maw lined with teeth snapped out. Shan screamed, but Kayla could not hear her. She and Shan ran for the glass window displaying their world and when they pounded on it simultaneously, it gave as though it weren't there at all and they fell out, tumbling on cold metal flooring. Kayla remained where she landed, but Shan instantly leapt to her feet like cat and swept up her maglite. She shined it on the wall, but now it was nothing more than another dark surface. Not so much as a glimmer reflected from it. "What WAS that?" Shan shouted a bit too loudly. But Kayla did not want to answer her suspicions. She did not trust her own thoughts at the moment; not when she knew nothing of the world around them.

"Maybe just a time pocket or something that half-formed." It wasn't what she really thought, but at least it was an answer Shan would be willing to hear.

"Well! Hello, LADIES!"

Shan snapped her head up to greet Dr. Gatchel's unwelcome face. "Doctor Gatchel," she sneered. "Out taking a pee?"

"Everyone is assigned to do something . . . Ms. Shangyn. That is, everyone except the two of you who are so preoccupied with the welfare of a troublesome brat, you seemed to have forgotten there are other people who need your assistance."

Kayla shot him a dirty look, "I am NOT leaving Rusti out here alone!"

"Oh really?" Gatchel challenged. "Well, while you're skipping about chasing Goldilocks, we've been trying to survive. Or doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Kayla distantly heard the tap-tap of Rusti's feet as though she had found a stairway. Wordlessly, the Kshi moved to round Gatchel but he side-stepped, preventing her exit. Her eyes locked with his and she dipped her chin down as though to butt his head with hers. "Move aside, Doctor Gatchel. I need to get to her."

"And what if I say no, Miss Kayla? Hmm?"

Kayla was not willing to start a fight. She tried to move around him again but Gatchel blocked her path. Shan butt her way between them, standing just a little shorter than the C.M.O. Her dark blue eyes sparked dangerously. "Trying to pick a fight, Doctor?" she snapped. "I can give you one."

"And is that a threat?"

He didn't even see it coming. Shan hit him so fast, so hard, his whole body crashed, sliding until it pinned against a nearby wall. "No."

Shan followed Kayla into darkness. Instinctively, the ladies called their helms from subspace and searched for life signs. Shan glanced about and started to feel nervous. The walls where they were now, no longer rested on the floor; they floated a good eight inches in the air. A restless cold crept into her and she wondered if they and the frozen people were all that existed on this level. For the survivors' sake, she hoped as much.

"There you are!" Kayla's gentle voice came over the comline, but it was not aimed at Shan. The Kshi bee-lined for Rusti, finding her sitting on the fifth step of another stair rail. She knelt before the girl and brushed curly red hair from the girl's eyes. "Sweety, this is not a good thing to do. Let's get back to the camp-"

"Optimus is up there and he needs help!"

Kayla smiled sadly and her eyes drifted down, her eyes attracted to the girl's softly glowing fingernails. "Rusti, we can't do anything for him here-"

"But I need to get to him!" Rusti's voice rang in determination she took two steps.

Kayla grasped her right hand, keeping her from going further. "You can't do anything for him, not really. Let's get back to the camp and tell Rodimus Prime-"

"No! I'm NOT leaving him by himself!" And she scampered up. But she was not fast enough. Shan caught her by the waist and pulled her back down. Rusti kicked and pounded Shan's body until Kayla shot her with a hypo. Rusti looked shocked and the next second, she passed out.

Kyle was up and awake, albeit weak when the ladies returned. Kayla noticed Ultra Magnus, Voodoo and Dagger were gone. Shan laid the girl alongside a sleeping Steve, recalled her helm and sighed.

"She's spunky, I'll give her that. How's Midnight and Steve?"

"Weaker." Kyle moaned softly.

"And Dagger, Spell and V?"

"Scouting. Voodoo heard you hit Gatchel. He's still laughing about it."

That sparked a smile across Shan's face and she slightly lifted her chin.

Matt joined them a few moments later, bearing gifts. He handed a bottle of water and a six-inch submarine sandwich to Shan then gave another bottle of water to Kyle. "Don't worry, Shan, I made sure there were no pickles, onions or beef in yours. They're making soup, Kyle. Want some?"

Scott nodded silently, his eyes now focused on Rusti. He frowned and rested his head against the wall behind him. "Did somebody bring goodies with them, Matt? Or did you guys pass by a fast food joint?"

Matt knelt after handing Kayla the same kind of sandwich and water. He produced a bottle of water himself and took a swig before answering Scott. "Nope. The two Delahoussaye boys found half a kitchen not far from here. So far, nobody's found so much as a hangnail from a xenomorph. Magnus and Dagger's been round the place about three times, now. They've found more anomalies, but no morphs."

Kayla's face contorted into puzzlement. "That's odd, considering Rusti was chased down here by one."

"Could be just a fluke." Shan joined, munching on her sandwich. She didn't realize she was so hungry.

Matt nodded. "What do you say, Kyle? What do you think?"

The corners of Kyle's mouth tightened. "I'm a doctor, Colonel Frasier, not a chronologist. The only person who can explain anything is sound asleep." Kyle drank more water. He was hungry, but not for what the girls were eating. On the other side of Steve, Rusti groaned to life and moved just slightly. Kyle and Kayla shot eyes at one another. "I thought you gave her a tranq."

"I did." Kayla finished her sandwich in two bites and joined Kyle as he languidly crawled over Steve to check on the girl.

_Should be sleeping, Kyle. You need your strength._ Parker was not as soundly asleep as Kyle thought.

_Kyle, what are you doing? You're supposed to be sleeping._ Kyle grinned. Steve and Voodoo did this to him often now. At times, it was like having two nagging mothers. But Kyle took it in stride. He touched the girl's face for her temperature then tested her pulse. He shook his head. Her blood pressure was too high, her fever had shot up again and her heart raced with her breath when she tried to sit up. "You'll be alright, Rusti." he promised softly.

In the background, he heard Rodimus calling Shan away. Matt followed her to give Kyle space. Rusti weakly gazed at him, her eyes dark and glassy. "Optimus . . . please . . . somebody help him." And her eyes melted into tears. She could not cover her face and had to look elsewhere in embarrassment.

Kyle felt for her, but his own state would not allot for a trip anywhere just yet. "We will help him, I promise. We just can't get to him yet." He brushed tears off her cheeks and finally had to sit down all the way. The antidote had absorbed most of the poison, but it took time to heal. Kyle sighed and produced his medical scanner. He would need to sleep again soon. He examined the girl for several moments. Rusti had strong muscle build-up in her arms and legs; a sure sign of an active, healthy child. But all her life-signs read otherwise. "Rusti?" Kyle softly called. "What was the last thing you remember?"

She shrugged and sniffed. "I dunno." She thought hard for a moment then: "I was in my room and I woke up; it was dark and I saw something . . ." Her eyes stared into nothing as an evil memory touched her. "It was going straight for Optimus. I couldn't stop it. It hissed at me . . . I think. Don't know why it bothered taking the elevator, though. I mean, if it was in the hallway, why didn't it just go through the floors, right?"

"What, Rusti? What just went through the floors?"

"That thing. It's not really real, is it? It's just that I'm sick and they said I have mono but it doesn't feel like mononucleosis."

Kyle smiled warmly. "You don't have mono, sweetheart. I can assure you that much." Here Kyle ran his finger over her blue nails. "Mono doesn't turn your nails blue."

The touch caused her to cover her face. "What's wrong with me?" she wept, "I feel like something is trying to crawl into my skin, Doctor Scott! I don't know what's wrong! I'm seeing things and hearing things and I'm freaking out."

Kyle wondered what Other Darkness touched her. Kyle drew a deep breath. "Rusti, would you do me a favor?"

She shrugged.

"I need you to count. But listen carefully. I want you to count one to ten and in between each number, I want you to count to four. For example: One. One two three four. Two. One to three four. Three. One two three four and so on. Can you do that for me?"

She batted her eyes and realized she'd have to concentrate. "One . . . One, two, three, four, five, six-" she caught herself, and started over, "One. One, two, three, four . . . four . . . two, um, one, two . . ." she became confused. Two follows one, naturally, but he was asking her to recount and resume what she started and recount again. And now she lost her place! "One . . ." naturally two comes after one, everyone knows that, but in this instance, she had to start recounting except that one does not follow one, but two-no, two follows one . . .

And what about all the other numbers?

Her face flushed with frustration. She felt guilty, unable to do what seemed so easy a task.

"Okay, Rusti, hon. It's okay." Doctor Scott gently squeezed her hands .

Gatchel harrumphed from behind Kyle. "Here we go, nosing about this bizarre little girl when there are others who need attention. Doctor Scott, it seems one of our patients is phasing out of sync with the rest of us. Would you kindly come and examine him?"

"Bring the patient here, Doctor. I really can't be moving around." Kyle did not see Steve open his eyes just a little. Amazingly enough, Gatchel did not say anything more. Kyle glanced at Rusti then looked to Kayla. "I'd like to talk to their Rodimus Prime, Kayla. I think he should know about Rusti's concern for Optimus."

Kayla spoke but Kyle did not hear her. Something touched his own mind; a cold darkness fringed his heart with grief and a burning sensation settled over his skin. Inwardly, the doctor found himself groping for something to ward off the attack. _Voodoo._ it was just a whisper. Outwardly, Kyle clutched his chest and struggled against the growing dark of unconsciousness. He felt himself tip, nearly falling into a deep pit of . . . Non-self? Was that a term for it? He wondered thereafter because for a moment, Kyle thought he was losing himself inside someone else. But then Voodoo Touched him, brought him back and he felt himself bound to his Dokiah. He thought he could breathe Voodoo's soul into his own; it was his own. Voodoo grieved in fear.

The darkness receded. Kyle opened his eyes and found himself leaning against Kayla, softly gasping for breath. The world about him came dead silent. He heard Kayla's heartbeat magnified a million times. He hovered over Gatchel's head as the C.M.O. approached a survivor who wept inconsolably. From his viewpoint, Kyle noticed how parts of her hair lay missing; the muscle tissue and bone of her left arm lay exposed to the air, though the patient seemed not to notice. A vacancy replaced the corner of her left eye, giving her the haunted look of one who had been marred by a terrible attack.

"Why, Escara," Kyle heard Gatchel coo, "why are you crying?

"I was told I'm going to be Next," the dark-skinned alien female sniffed. "I heard the Voice. A Devourer."

"How do you know this?"

"My shadow, Doctor Gatchel. My shadow is missing."

---------------------------------------

Steve brushed his thumb over Kyle's face and Scott blinked several times before realizing he had stopped breathing. Kyle looked into Parker's eyes and received a warm smile. "Hey." Steve tugged a blanket, drawing it closer to Kyle's shoulders. "It's about time you came back to us, Kyle."

He lay flat on his back, a small pillow cushioned him from the floor. He weakly gripped Parker's hands and he gasped for breath. "Steve! What's happened to me? I was talking to Rusti and then-"

"Shhhh." Steve's blue eyes glinted in the bright anti-grav light. _You were caught between me and Mid. He had- _and here Steve paused, bowing his head and Kyle felt the anguish pouring from his friend. He gripped Steve's hands more tightly, but could not find words, meaningless or otherwise, to console his friend. But Steve found his strength again and gathered his resolve, _Mid's had something like a seizure, Kyle. Something is killing him. It's slow and so far he's been able to hold shields to protect us. But it won't be much longer. The seizure hit me and filtered on to you._

Kyle sighed sadly, "Steve, I need to find out what's wrong with him."

Parker smiled wryly. "Yes. But you should eat something before doing anything else. 'K?"

Kyle sat up and found Rusti sleeping next to him. He glanced at Parker and looked for Kayla. He found more survivors around them now, sitting or sleeping away the time. "How is she?"

"Um, sick, I think." Steve slipped aside so Kyle could examine her. The doctor frowned as though perplexed or disapproving. But he said nothing. He rubbed his thumb across Rusti's blue finger tips and passed his scanner over her again.

"Steve,"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think it's possible people can exist without certain elements in their life force?"

At first Steve tried to think of an answer, then he realized what Kyle as asking. "What kind of a question is that?"

"This girl is missing Gamma wave life force and it keeps her out of sync with the polarities of the reality from which she came."

The Alternate Rodimus Prime suddenly popped up from around the wall, bearing a mischievous smile. "Boo! We're ba-aack!" he sang. Didn't see any nasties, large or otherwise. I'll bet the two of you are relieved-'specially that cranky friend of yours over there. He tried to pick a fight with me earlier. I just threatened to step on him." And Roddi shrugged carelessly. He nodded toward the girl, "How's my baby bird?"

It took a moment for Kyle to sort through Roddi's excited speech then he realized Prime referred to Rusti: "Oh, I think . . . I don't know."

"You think you don't know?" Roddi echoed. He sat on his knees, staring hard at Scott and Kyle squirmed a little.

Steve cleared his throat. "Kyle means she's sick and he thinks it's something he's not seen before."

"Well, why didn't you say that to begin with? I'm not that much of an idiot, Doctor."

Gatchel's voice sounded clear and a bit loudly behind them: "Perhaps not, Rodimus Prime, but HE might be." Steve shot him a venomous look while Kyle rolled his eyes. Gatchel gabbed on: "As I've taken pains to mention before, it seems there is more a preoccupation with this child than others who also require assistance. Or maybe the lot of you have forgotten we have other matters of importance, such as trying to find a way out of here."

Steve thought about being diplomatic at first, "Not too sure if you're keeping up with present events, Doctor Gatchel, but Kyle was poisoned not too long ago."

Gatchel snorted. "Then maybe someone else should be in charge. Since it's obvious neither of you are capable of doing much yourselves. Besides, poison doesn't heal, Captain Pecker-"

"Parker."

"-you have to absorb it and pass it through." Gatchel stood behind Kyle and spoke directly into his ear, "Tell me, doctor, what IS it with you and this little creature?"

Kyle could not look him in the eye, but he lowered his gaze, "She seems to be physically out of sync. Her life force is not registering correctly."

Gatchel paused, then: "What does that mean?"

Kyle gave the C.M.O. a sharp look. "She has no gamma wave life force. Technically, she should not be alive. Without gamma, light perception would be impossible. A Human would be color blind, unable to use the sense of taste, the equilibrium would be such that involuntary functions would be useless. That's bad enough, but how is it that she has the Zatra Tatlic virus?"

"You can't be serious!" Gatchel snapped.

Steve scrunched his face up in puzzlement. "Zatra what, Kyle?"

"Come on, DOCTOR, I've heard some off-base things as a professional, but that has got to be the most ridiculous thing I've heard! How could that be even remotely possible?"

Shan joined the group to prevent a fight between the two men. "What's that?" Rodimus' Tentchi asked.

"This man is an idiot." Gatchel spat, pointing at Kyle. "I question his rationality. Really, now, Doctor Scott! There is no way in HELL that girl could have Zatra Tatlic!"

Kyle was beginning to lose his patience. "Gatchel, you know what a virus consists of: a package of pure protein and DNA. And DNA consists of molecules that can be broken down into straight mathematical equations. All you need are the right formulas-"

"You are stretching it WAY out of proportion, Doctor Scott. It's the kind of thing you'd find in science fiction, not in real life!"

"YOUNG MAN," Kyle said sternly, "I've been alive LONG ENOUGH, and know my profession WELL ENOUGH to know it IS possible!"

Gatchel's eyes smoldered. "Perhaps it might be possible," he admitted, "for people who are possessed by alien machines."

Gatchel did not see the look on Steve's face. "But," the C.M.O. continued, "she's a HUMAN child-alternate reality or not! And I question your judgment and your diagnosis." And he stomped off, muttering. Kyle drew a deep breath. If Gatchel had carried the argument just a little further, with one more insult toward the Dokiah, he would have given the C.M.O. a right-cross.

"Kyle?" Shan's firm voice called his attention. His anger melted when their eyes met. "What were you two talking about?"

"Zatra Tatlic is a Transformers virus, Shan. This girl has the organic version of it." Both Steve and Shan stared at him dumbfounded.

"Optimus." Rusti barely whispered. "Please go help him." She started crying again. "Please help him! He needs somebody to help!"

"Okay." Kyle promised. "We're going right now. But I want you to promise me you'll get lots of rest until I return."

She couldn't stop crying, no matter how embarrassed she felt. A big girl like her, crying like a five year-old. Shan moved to her and picked up Kyle's blanket, laying it kindly over the girl's shoulders. Steve stood and stretched. He still felt exhausted, but things needed to be done.

He passed Kyle for the labyrinth of lone-standing walls among which Rodimus had lain Midnight. _Kyle, could you look at Mid, first?_

_Of course I will._ Kyle sounded as dead tired as Steve felt, but at least he was able to function. Steve helped his weary friend to his feet and they rounded huddled groups of tired and hopeless people. They traveled several yards into the dark stillness. They passed six floating walls before approaching Midnight's languid form.

_Kyle, next time you and Gatchel get into an argument, will you please let me handle it? You're a terrible diplomat. _

"Hitting a C.M.O. is against regulations, Steve."

"Don't you sass me." Parker teased. "You know I would have made it a nice clean strike."

Scott's lips lined as he neared Midnight and found his own partner there, keeping vigil. _I didn't want to disturb your sleep, Kyle. I wanted you to be well . . . but Midnight's-_

_Voodoo, their link ripple hit me, too. Damn I wish I could learn shields! _

_You will._ voodoo promised gently. Kyle frowned and started to scan the dark Sleeper. _But shields take time. You have to learn how to push thoughts and emotions away from you._

Kyle blinked in surprise. He hadn't thought of shields in that sense. He silently projected the need to rest in the park outside the hospital under delicious light. All this darkness oppressed him and Kyle sensed Steve felt the same. He brought his scanner down and stared at its readings. Then customarily, Kyle paced around Midnight. "It would be a hell of a lot easier if Skywolf were here, Steve."

"I could pretend to be Skywolf."

"No, you talk too funny for that."

A brow went up. Kyle actually gave him a come-back? "That's a rare event, Kyle. Someone finally gave me a smart remark in turn. Been hanging around Matt too long?"

But the moment faded and Kyle became his usual serious self. "I don't know what to do for him, Steve. There's no way we can protect him."

"What's that, Kyle?"

But another voice answered in Kyle's stead: "Matrix energy."

All three occupants turned toward the entrance of the little enclave and there stood Rodimus Prime, or rather, the Alternate Rodimus Prime. His face was a mask of solemnity and he stared down at Midnight's motionless dark grey form.

Kyle held out his hand to ward the Autobot off. "Don't come any closer. You're making matters worse."

"Tell me, Doctor, why are the Sentinels so . . . sensitive to the energy? Are they allergic to it?"

Steve crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Roddi. "That's not funny."

"But don't you wish it were?"

Kyle missed the joke as he noticed how the Autobot's optic sensors shaded down from blue to a disturbing red. "Rodimus, would you . . . perform a test for me?"

"A driving test? Sorry Doc, already done that. That's what I'm here, to let ol' Sparky here know me, Mags and Daggs-" and here he lifted his head and shook it, a ridiculous, almost maniacal smile crossed his face. "I kill me sometimes. We went on a field trip and found on the western side of this place is just cold hard wall. The north and eastern 'walls' aren't wall at all, but vacant, no-space zones. I tossed a slice of scrap metal out there and . . . zippo. I mean, it ceased to exist."

All fell silent until Kyle and Voodoo turned to Steve. Parker went to Mid and rested his cheek on Mid's head.

Voodoo drew closer to his friend. "Steve, you know what's going on, don't you? I mean, you know stuff like quantum dimensional physics and temporal theory."

Steve reluctantly tore from his love and faced Rodimus Prime. Something nagged him about the Alternate Prime. Either that, or he still felt unnerved by the way Prime seemed unstable. "I think we're stuck in a dimensional bubble reality. I think I know what's caused it, but I can't be entirely sure." he paused a moment. "What happened in your reality? Some event must have taken place that caused the two universes to cross and create this bubble."

Rodimus nodded. "A time ripple. Optimus couldn't guess and I didn't think about it until two hours ago. Or at least I'd imagine they'd be hours. We've been hit by a time ripple before, but it's never done this."

"Okay, that helps. It could be that the moment the time ripple hit your world, the energy nexus crossed Cybertron and the two phenomena opened a temporary worm hole that collapsed in on itself. That being the case, our life forces might have prevented the hole from collapsing entirely and instead, it formed a bubble reality."

"Wait a minute, Steve." Voodoo somehow understood what Parker was saying and it excited him. "How could a life force cause that?"

"A life force IS energy, Voodoo. You can't destroy energy, you can only disperse it."

Kyle nodded in turn. "And Tentchi-Dokiah life force is twice that of most other sentient beings and when those of us who were at the hospital phased . . ."

"It reinforced the structure of the bubble." Parker finished. "And, unfortunately, it brought our little friends with us."

"Because they were phasing in, too, weren't they, Steve?"

And now Voodoo had the full attention of both men. Kyle paled. "What's that, Voodoo? What did you say?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you earlier, Kyle. I saw a nest on one of the roofs on Medbay and more and more of it was phasing in from nowhere."

Steve and Kyle stared in silent shock.

Then Kyle's eyes drifted toward the Alternate Rodimus and caught him quietly speaking, his optics gazing far into nothing. Rodimus was softly singing to himself. It was not normal behavior; no matter which Rodimus in what universe they were in. Kyle snapped his scanner shut and tried to think. There had to be a connection between Rusti and what was happening to Midnight. Then another thought occurred to him; maybe the connection was Optimus Prime. As weary as Kyle was, he knew sooner or later he'd have to pay a visit to Optimus Prime. "Steve, I need to go upstairs. I promised Rusti someone would help Optimus Prime, if he's really up there."

"Up where?" Parker didn't want to leave Midnight now. He ran his hand up and down Mid's soft smooth skin, but didn't like its pliability.

"I don't know." Kyle answered softly.

_I don't want you going anywhere by yourself, Kyle._ Steve's fears were split between two people, but he could not take care of both of them.

_I won't. I promise. However, I need someone to keep an eye on the girl. _

_I can do that _

Rodimus' voice rang clear in the room: "Why are we just standing around?"

"We're not." Kyle answered quickly. "I was just deciding who to ask to accompany me."

"I'll go." Rodimus volunteered.

"Just you and I?" Kyle blinked.

A wry smirk smeared over Roddi's face. "You're not my kind, Doctor Scott. Can't dance with someone who's about as tall to me as Rusti's Barbie dolls are to her. I don't dance on my knees."

Voodoo grunted. But for some reason, neither Kyle nor Steve found that funny. Kyle drew a deep breath. "Let me inform Kayla and Shan. Excuse me." And he passed Rodimus with Voodoo tagging quietly behind.

The Alternate Second leaned against the floating wall and stared after the retreating doctor. "A rather somber individual, isn't he?"

Steve glanced Kyle's way, just glimpsing the last of Voodoo's foot. "He's got a lot on his mind."

Rodimus pushed himself from the wall and left with a harumph. Steve watched the Autobot stomp away then settled on the floor next to Midnight. There was finally some peace and quiet. Maybe he could concentrate long enough to infiltrate Mid's shields and somehow ease his love's pain. That would be tricky at best. Steve tried to nestle against the folds of Mid's opened hand and derive some bit of comfort. "I know you're fighting, Mid," he said softly. "Just . . . stay with me." Parker feared Mid would fall to stasis and that would seal his fate as far as consciousness went. Parker shuddered, struggling to keep from crying and bowed over. He drew several deep breaths, but the tears came anyway and he quickly wiped them from his face. Steve didn't see the green visor-like optical sensors flare weakly then died down again. But he did feel Mid softly murmur his name.

_I hope we get out of here before Midnight falls into stasis lock, Kyle._

_Me too, Voodoo. I fear for Steve, though. He'll start to feel the effects soon, if he hasn't been already-_

_You said you suffered from a backlash. What's that?_

_Mid's shields are starting to collapse._

That stopped Voodoo cold and he stared as Kyle rejoined the survivors. He was scrutinized by several pained and angry eyes as Shan approached him tugging a middle-aged scaly-skinned alien with her. She put the alien gentleman between her and Kyle and she stared sharply at the weary doctor. "Kyle, this is Trog."

"Oh?" Kyle checked his gear for the trip upstairs and tossed aside his empty laser rifle. It was useless now.

"Yes." The alien's words came with some difficulty, "we saw frightful things. Shadows wobbled without the body or object moving. We saw movies on the walls."

Kyle's brows went up in doubt.

"Show him, Trong," Shan urged.

The alien undid the front of his garment and displayed his chest. The skin phased in and out of existence, displaying and hiding his insides. Rather than flinching, as did those around him, Kyle moved in closer, fascinated by the phenomena. "The shadows did this?" He asked. "When did this happen?"

"Yes," Trog confirmed. "We were moving up the stairs and me and three others and Doctor Gatchel all swallowed by the Dark."

Kyle glanced at Shan as though asking her for an answer. But Shangyn shook her head. "I can't say what it is. But Trong says he and someone else later saw a moving pictures on a wall downstairs."

"Why didn't you say something before?" Kyle undid his chest piece, readjusted it and latched it again.

"Because we were afraid and because Doctor Gatchel said we should not talk about such things-that it could be bad luck."

Kyle produced his scanner and adjusted it for Trog's species. He scanned the alien twice and compared the readings. "It's not killing you, Trog. I honestly don't know what is going on here, but it will have to wait until I get back, or when Steve returns."

Shan glared at him, "that's not very reassuring."

Kyle merely shrugged. "I'm sorry. I already promised to see another patient. It doesn't seem to be life-threatening at the moment. When I get back, I want to look at the others, okay?" But Shan kept glaring at him. Scott sighed, too tired to fight. "Steve's having a quiet moment with Midnight, Shan. I'm going with Rodimus-um, their Rodimus Prime to find Optimus Prime." He glanced down at Rusti and was pleased to find her asleep. "Watch her for me, okay?"

"I want to come." Shan's voice was quiet, but direct.

Kyle did not realize it, but he gave her a customary look that meant please don't ask me that. Shan read it and frowned with a glance in Gatchel's direction. "Alright, I'll stay. But I don't want any lectures if you return and find Doctor Frankenstein in little fragments."

Kyle's whole face lightened as though a burden were lifted from his shoulders. "That would be Steve's department and he's going to stay and baby-sit the two of you."

Shan scrunched up her face in a sneer.

Rodimus Prime came from another part of the group. Kyle could not tell if it was Shan's Roddy or the other Rodimus. But the next moment Shan leaned against her Dokiah and Scott smiled.

"You look very tired, Doctor Scott," Rodimus observed. "Are you sure you want to go through this?"

"I did make a promise. Besides, it sounds like I have a patient waiting for me. The-uh-the other Rodimus said he'd go with us."

"Steve?"

"No. He wants to stay with Mid. And I'd rather he'd get rest, anyway."

"Okay!" The other Rodimus appeared from the shadows, unnerving Kyle. He knelt beside the girl and ever so quietly spoke to her. Rusti's little voice pricked the air with trembling fear and sorrow. But Prime dispelled her distress by covering her with a blanket and set a hot cup of liquid next to her. If Kyle didn't know any better, he'd think they were Interfaced, the way they interacted.

Rodimus glanced up at him. "How is she?" he asked softly.

"Supposed to be under three hundred CC's of tranq. We've been giving her tranquilizers to help her sleep. She's very sick and not sleeping." The Alternate Rodimus stared at him and Kyle read grief in his expression.

Roddi nodded. "She can be intensely wired at times." He paused a beat. "Are we ready?"

In spite of Dagger's protests, Matt tagged along more to keep Kyle company than to protect him. A short debate and several yards later, Kyle was grateful for Matt's presence regardless of the two tall Autobots that accompanied them. The darkness felt surreal at one point and almost alive on the other. It seemed to close in and made Kyle a bit nervous. He found, too, that he could not look directly at the labyrinth of bulkheads and walls that floated on either side of their path. The walls seemed foreboding, as though they might be more than misplaced barriers, perhaps windows waiting for victims.

"Oh, this must be the stairway!" Matt's cheerful voice filled the air, but it sounded cut off by the dark and Kyle was glad someone spoke because both Primes said nothing. They allowed the Tentchi to step ahead then Rodimus after that and Roddi followed him thereafter. The floating steps and a grim, lightless world weighed heavily on his heart as though they were all on the edge of hell or living in someone's horrible dream.

Finally Roddi's voice filtered through the quiet, "kinda cold up here." He glanced about and spotted the camp below them, naught but a tiny speck of light. He dared gaze up and thought for sure the floor they were huffing toward floated in the air completely without support.

Kyle reached the doorway first and stepped into a great corridor intensely lit by emergency red lighting. But the door he stepped though was only large enough for he and Matt. He turned and flinched, stepping back when the two Primes simply stepped through the wall.

"How did you do that?" Kyle gasped.

"Do what?" they chorused.

Matt saw it, too. "You just walked through the wall."

"There was no wall there." Rodimus glanced back but Roddi pressed on.

"Come on," he moaned, "Let's not worry about the Outer Limits stuff, okay?"

Kyle lingered a moment longer, wishing Steve were there with them. He trailed after the others, examining the hall with wary eyes and scanners on alert mode.

The small group found the end of the hall and crossed another area comprised of lost mis-matched walls and sand scattered along the ground. Matt shined his maglite in one direction and Kyle winced. He hated the emergency lighting here and Matt's light made the shadows worse. It came too bright in some areas, but disfigured others. Kyle startled when he nearly ran into two ladies at one corner, finding their faces lit so hard they seemed almost demonic.

"Or I just need sleep." he muttered to himself. Kyle was tempted to use the alternate vision filters in his helmet. That would allow him to see more clearly but under the circumstances, he really needed his own eyes.

The group crossed what was half a park. Neither Kyle nor Matt took their eyes off the swings as they moved back and forth on their own. Both Rodimi seemed unaffected by the eerie sight, either that or they ignored it entirely. The swings and the shadows on the ground filled Kyle's heart with dread.

Finally they crossed cold metal flooring, saying nothing about the transit turbo shaft and moving sidewalk. Kyle recognized the platform without reading the plate: MEDBAY LEVEL 3: MECHANICS. But why did the Mechanics section of Medbay end up here? Why not the Organics?

On the other hand, he digressed, he decided he didn't want to know. Doctor Scott wished he had his coat, though the suit was warm, it really did not make him feel very secure. He rushed to keep up with Matt whose maglite zipped to and back as though the man himself were keeping an extra eye out for the Boogeyman.

Another hall yawned open for them, lit harshly by the blood-red light. Kyle shuddered when Roddi let out a sad gasp and ran for the other end.

Optimus Prime lay on the floor amidst his own body fluids. Matt and Kyle examined the Autobot's languid form while Roddi whispered gently to his friend. Rodimus ignored Kyle as the doctor scanned the Autobot leader. Optimus did not move, made no sound and did not respond to any of Roddi's soft calls. He checked Optimus' electropulse, finding a slow, steady vibration, but it was weak.

Kyle skimmed the readings, finding disturbingly low energy and several damaged processors. "What exactly happened just before the time ripple hit?"

Roddi knew the stranger was talking to him. He was in no mood to answer a series of questions but he forced himself to cooperate. "I don't really know. I've been out of it the last day or so, myself. Well, we did wake up simultaneously in medical and realized something was about to happen. Optimus came here to shut Max down while I shut things off Topside."

Rodimus Prime glanced up and down the corridor, opened a door and found nothing but cold, swirling space where there should have been a room. He closed it and glanced over his shoulder strut. "Are you saying you two knew what was going to happen?"

Rodimus traced Prime's arm and held his hand. "We . . . felt something was going to happen, we just didn't know exactly what." Roddi paused, checking Optimus' electropulse for the eighth time. "We must get him off the floor."

"I don't think there's any place to take him." Rodimus opened another door and found the very same thing.

Roddi gently half-lifted Optimus from the floor and hushed him down when Prime shuddered, begging for forgiveness in a soft whimper.

Kyle tried not to be intrusive of this moment and he hoped to handle it as delicately as possible, "Has he been . . . ill lately, Rodimus Prime?"

"Ill?"

"Yes. Depressed or unwell?"

Rodimus hesitated, "yes."

Kyle snapped his scanner off and turned to the Alternate Second. "I'm getting multiple readings. Some of them make sense. Others shouldn't-"

"Just spit it out, doc, don't play ring-around-the-rosies with me."

Kyle blinked. "I'm getting readings of energy depletion, inner leakages that lead to no internal damage and a double consciousness."

Rodimus stared at him, his blue optics blazed cold. "Can you help him?"

"I don't know. I'll need a more careful examination and a better place to do it."

Roddi merely lowered Optimus to the ground and wiped fluids from the sides of his helm. The touch brought the Autobot leader around and Prime's optics weakly lit and dimmed. He tried to speak, but something blocked his words. Rodimus shook his head and gently caressed his friend's helm with his thumbs. "Don't talk right now." He hoped his words came soft and soothing.

Optimus wanted to turn away, wanted to hide his weakness and shame. Wasn't he supposed to be stronger than this? Whatever happened to the supposed invincible hero? Oh, that's right. Darkness devoured him. Again Prime struggled to attain strength deep down and managed to grasp a few precious drops of fortitude. "Rod-i-musss, if there is truly a devil . . . he now resides within me."

If Rodimus could, he would have swallowed air. "Don't talk like that." He was surprised his reply came as soft as it did, considering the horror he felt. Devil indeed! Optimus was just sick, that's all. Some kind of malfunction must have taken place.

Kyle watched Matt as the Colonel crouched and examined mech fluids as though he saw something in them. Scott shook his head and his eyes just bounced off the wall to his right for a split second when he swore he spotted something. He gave it a second glance and his throat constricted when he saw a shadow dancing madly along it. He froze cold, his heart pounded. What the hell was that?

_Kyle? What's wrong_ Steve finally came back to him and now Kyle wondered why they had not contacted each other at this distance while Steve was with the others in the lower levels.

_Shadows._ Doctor Scott shuddered when the wall seemed to 'blink' black and the shadow repeated all its crazy movements like a movie playing over and over again.

_Kyle? What's wrong_ Steve's voice filled his mind and brought Kyle back to reality. Now that he thought of it, he wondered why they had not contacted each other like this before while Steve was in lower levels.

_Sha . . . dows . . . I just said that, Steve. I just- _

and the wall blinked in darkness and the shadow pranced along its smooth surface like a madman dancing along the edge of a cliff side. Kyle held out his hands against it and stepped back, unable to deal with the dark walls and their mutated ghosts.

_Kyle? _

_Shadows on the wall-_ and the next thing Kyle knew he was trapped inside a huge spaceship, buried deep under ground and an endless corridor stretched before him and before he could decide to run along it, a rabid alien dog with an oversized head and teeth as long as a man's arm charged for him. They clamped down and the sound jarred him so that light flashed in his mind-

"Doctor Scott!"

"What?" He snapped about and found himself now standing outside the hall way, near the Mechanics transit. The two Rodimi and Matt were there with him and he stood next to Optimus Prime.

"Are you alright, Doctor?" Roddi asked firmly as Rodimus Prime dragged emergency covers from a small storage compartment in the transport.

"No." Kyle shook with cold, "what happened?"

"I asked you to rescan Optimus Prime, now that we've taken him out of the hallway. It should be easier for you to see out here, right?"

Kyle glanced at the time on his scanner. It registered ten minutes of time he himself could not account for.

---------------------------------------

Distant distorted voices roused Steve from a light dream. He opened his eyes and half-listened. The voices repeated the same tempo over and over then overlapped one another in a chorus of endless babble.

Babble? Or was it something else? He took to his feet and tried to pinpoint their location. But there seemed no definite location, they came from his right, then his left then above him.

"Hello?" he whispered. Steve dared remove his metal glove and touched the wall to his right. The surface rippled like water and he withdrew his hand. Was the wall liquefying? The voices hushed for a moment then in one terrible chorus, they screamed and then all were cut off. He turned to his partner. "Mid, did you hear that?"

_Circles, looping._ But it was all Mid would say. Parker frowned. He should have known better than to ask; Midnight's pain caused him to hallucinate.

The willful tapping pattern of Shan's footsteps entered Steve's hearing range and he smiled grimly as she approached. She returned the smile with less assurance like a child entering her father's office chamber without consent. "Hi. How's Midnight?"

"Still with us, for the most part." Steve really wanted to be alone, but he figured he had his time and the others probably needed to be checked on. "How's everyone out there?"

"Edgy. They're wondering what's taking Matt and Kyle and the two Rodimuses so long a time. And Gatchel's getting . . ." the corners of her mouth drew tight. "Well, he's getting weird."

Steve stared at her a bit surprised then the red lighting dimmed a moment before resuming its usual intensity. "What's that?"

"I don't know. It's been doing that off and on since the others left. I thought that maybe you might know."

Steve approached the entrance to the enclave and glanced up and down the walkway from the group's section and up to the darkness where Kyle and Matt left for the other stair well. "Is Voodoo still around?"

"No, he's with Ultra Magnus and Dagger, doing parameter checks. They didn't want anyone else to go anywhere."

"That's a good idea." Steve mumbled. He took a final, sorrowful glance at his love and with a burdened sigh, left for the group. Shan tagged his heels, but it did not make him feel any better. An uneasy coldness settled over his shoulders and caused some discomfort in his left arm. They came to Rusti and Kayla first. The Kshi nurse stirred and silently met Parker's gaze. She forced a welcomed smile and sat up from the wall. Steve crouched before her, cautious as not to wake the girl.

"How's stuff?" he asked, meaning to sound silly.

Kayla shook her head. "It seems to be getting colder and Rusti keeps crying in her sleep."

Steve nodded and blinked, "I'll be back in a little bit, Kayla. I'm going to check on our other guests."

"Steve, Steve, did Kyle-"

. . . SHADOWS ON THE WALL . . .MOVING

"-coming back?"

Steve blinked and wondered where the other voice came from. "I'm sorry, Kayla, what was that?"

"When is Kyle coming back?"

"He didn't tell me when. I'll be right back, alright?" He didn't wait for her unsatisfied nod. He strode through the camp, finding most people either sleeping, sitting and conversing or eating quietly. The air felt funny here, as though something was amiss, something Parker had not noticed before.

SHADOWS . . .

And he took his cue from that. He glanced at the shadows in the glare of the antigrav light and noticed some people didn't even cast shadows. He recalled the fragment of the hospital ward he and Matt explored and how there were shadows when there should not have been.

"Captain Parker! How good of you to grace us with your presence!" Steve's arm was caught by the last man he wanted to face. Gatchel gave him a ridiculous toothy smile, which actually made the C.M.O. look both sinister and stupid at the same time.

"Hmmm. Hello, Doctor Gatchel. Nice of you to keep everything under control."

"Oh, this? Well we have water and food and restroom facilities, what more could people possibly want? Well, that is other than to get home and back to reality but we don't want to give up any hopes, now do we?"

"Um, Doctor Gatchel, if there's a point to this inane conversation of yours, I'd like you to let me know when you get around to it so I can set my watch to wake me from sleep."

Gatchel produced a fake chuckle and glanced at his foot. Steve thought it very stereotypical behavior. "You know, Captain Parker, it's always refreshing to remember how you and your ilk like to parade about the rest of us humble Puritans as though you were the universe's gift to sapient beings. But seriously, the fact is, CAPTAIN, Not one of you 'half-things' have done much to insure our permanent survival, escaping from this little universe or otherwise. So far all we've had to go on is a moment-by-moment safety precaution from man-eating creatures, an emergency food supply, a world locked in hell and a witless child. And what do you people keep doing? Take off on little trite expeditions. I think we all deserve some explanation as to what is really going on and if any of you half-gods have come up with a way to get us out of here."

His comments were supported by a few "yeahs" and a couple of 'amens' from those who heard. Steve glanced at them and reading his intense eyes, they turned away to mind their own business. "I know things are a bit frightening right now. We are presently working on it, Doctor Gatchel. As long as you shut up and stay out of the way, we will get you home one way or another."

Gatchel laughed to himself. His eyes reached upward like a self-righteous prig who had to put up with the low-lifes. "We have approximately thirty patients and medical staff among us. There are provisions, but no power. There's a half-mad child among us and a damaged Autobot upstairs and from what I've gathered, your . . . partner is also dysfunctional."

Steve crossed his arms, his blue eyes rested cold on Gatchel. "Well, there you have it, Doctor Gatchel. Thank you for conducting this meeting and informing us of our peril."

But Gatchel pressed his initiative, not realizing he was playing a game Steve already knew. "And just what are we to do about it?"

Steve stared at him, then stared past him. His face contorted into a mass of awe and disbelief. Just beyond the rest area where Rusti lay, the wall waved slightly and from it emerged a figure consisting only of a head and a pair of straight, kneeless and footless legs. The head itself was triangular with a pair of horns jutting from the sides. Its face revealed itself only in a scream, frozen as though it were a mask. Before Steve could say anything, however, it disintegrated back into the wall.

"CAPTAIN PARKER." Gatchel called again. "CAN YOU PLEASE COME BACK TO REALITY?"

"Why don't you just shut up?" Shan came up from behind and whacked the idiot C.M.O. on the right arm. Gatchel instantly swung around and backhanded her. Shan fell with surprised impact and Gatchel reached for her again. Steve grabbed him and they struggled for a moment.

"HEY!" Parker called, "That's ENOUGH! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"She's been asking for it ever since we got here!" Gatchel screamed. "I'm going to lay it into that bitch once and for all!"

Steve lunged and pushed the man away. Gatchel stumbled backwards and his movement came strangely slow and mechanical. Steve felt his own body slow all the way down to a stop. Then he could not move. Even his eyes would not blink. He was fully conscious of everything around him, the doctor who almost stumbled over, the nurse who fed a patient soup, the shadows on the floor cast by Shadrik and Dillon. The baby sleeping soundly in her father's arms. But everything froze in eerie silence. Then the voices whispered back to him and Steve struggled to make them out, but they overlapped and something told him they were being said backwards. But how could he know that?

Shadows on the walls before his eyes danced without their makers. Then their forms trailed along the floor in long stretched shapes. Then their long dark hands struck against the metal flooring as though it were a prison through which they could not pass. Then they scampered back to the wall and repeated the same process. It was then that Steve realized what he was watching; not shadows of people, but those of xenomorphs struggling to break through. How he was able to see it, he could not guess.

He blinked and there suddenly Kayla stood with a bowl of soup in her hands. She smiled at him. "Hello? Are you hungry?"

Steve stared at her, then the wall. "Kayla . . . Gatchel, I just hit Gatchel."

"Steve, if you don't want the soup, just say so." Impatience sparked her tired eyes and Steve took the bowl, his mind foggy with confusion. He followed her back to the wall where the girl now sat up and stared into space. Her face seemed empty, but her eyes spoke of more than what Parker could describe in a glance. He sat next to her and took about three spoonfuls of clam chowder. Not his favorite, but it was food.

"So! Having fun?" He hoped it would bring the girl out of whatever thoughts might have preoccupied her. But he got no answer. He took several more spoonfuls. "How long has she been like this, Kayla?"

"For a while. About half an hour."

"Ten minutes." Rusti corrected softly.

"Hmm?" Steve leaned over to hear her more clearly.

"It's been ten minutes. Time skipped."

Steve's eyes shot wide and he brushed her dark red hair away and coaxed her to look him in the eye. "Did I hear you right? You just said time skipped?"

"You were right over there. You were frozen, just like everybody else. But the time passed differently for everybody. I counted ten minutes."

Steve stared at Kayla, his face distorted with puzzlement just as much as hers. "Didn't you just feel anything skipping, Kayla?"

She shrugged, "maybe a moment, everything seemed to slow down a little."

"When did it happen?"

"About half an hour ago. Everything seemed to freeze and that was just after you broke up a fight between Gatchel and Shan."

As Kayla spoke, Steve spotted other shadows on the wall across them. He approached it and stared hard at its cold surface. Kayla joined him a second later and the two watched as the shadows seemed to talk to one another then one shot the other. Kayla gasped and held her hand to her mouth. Then the shadows swirled and repeated the same event. Steve dared touch the wall, this time he left his glove on. The wall surface rippled like water, the images wobbled with it.

Steve produced his maglite and projected it at Kayla's legs. He started to go round her when she followed his footsteps. "No, no, Kayla. Stay right where you are." He circled her, searching for the shadow she should be casting. But no shadow projected from her body.

Kayla watched, her eyes filled with dread and horror. No shadow. "What does that mean, Steve? What's going on?"

Steve shut the light off and thought hard. No shadow. Light was being swallowed into darkness by some force of anti-matter or anti-reality or something that-his thoughts were disrupted when her shadow appeared the very next second without help of his maglite. Kayla covered her mouth, stifling a scream. The shadow blinked in then out then in again and the third time around, it moved on its own. Then it changed directions and flitted about in a circle. The whole incident freaked Steve, too but he was thinking of it more in terms of temporal theory rather than the shadow taking on a life of its own. Maybe what they were seeing was not the shadow coming to life, but a delay in time-reaction.

"I think," he said slowly, "that we are witnessing the breaking down of stabilized time here. I think time is slowly disintegrating into something else. Matt and I saw it in the lower levels, too. I had hoped it was only a localized phenomena, but it appears the whole microverse is breaking down into a simplified series of events and if we are unable to escape before it breaks down completely, we'll become a permanent part of it."

"What?"

Now his blue eyes pierced her, "A causality loop, Kayla. This place is about to be trapped in a temporal loop, the events will repeat themselves over and over again and we will never know the difference because our minds will not know the difference. In fact, it very well could be that we're already caught up in the loop. The thing of it is, I was very much aware of what was going on around me while time froze for me. That's almost a good indication because it might mean the loop hasn't started yet; that time is just now starting to break down."

Kayla was about to ask Parker what he meant, but their attention was swept away by Rusti's scream. They rushed back and found her on her feet pounding her fists into the air. At first Steve thought the child was merely hallucinating but then he saw it, too. He leapt to her aid and wrapped his arms about her.

"LET ME GO!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. "IT WON'T GO AWAY! MAKE IT GO AWAY! GO AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!" She was hysterical and kept kicking and struggling in Parker's arms. Gatchel leapt over three people and pushed two others down before coming to the rescue. He checked a hypo and swiftly stabbed her with it. She kicked him in the chin and probably would have done it again had Steve not turned her away and set her back on the cushions where she laid earlier.

"LET ME GO! I'M GONNA KILL IT!" She wrestled with him until Steve pinned her down and forced her to look him in the face.

"NOBODY'S GOING TO HARM YOU, RUSTI." he said sternly. "Calm down."

"FREAK WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE! IT WON'T GO AWAY!"

"Okay! Okay! We'll deal with it!"

And she paused just a moment before breaking into tears, crying loudly. Steve glanced at the figure only he and the girl could see. There it stood, a nightmare in three-dimensional form. Kayla came around the other side and Steve released Rusti into the healer's arms. Gatchel sat up rubbing a sliced and bleeding chin. Steve ignored him, slowly approaching what Rusti named 'Freak'.

"That little bitch is a case study in resistance to tranquilizers." Gatchel growled. "Captain Parker, I suggest we tie her up." He waited for an answer but received none. "Captain Parker, are you listening to anything I say?"

Steve did not care what the C.M.O. had to say. He reached out and touched something he could only describe as cold blood. Fragments of pictures flashed through his mind so quickly, he had no time to discern what they were; merely flashes of color.

Gatchel lost his patience and gripped Parker's arm. He did not like the look in the Captain's eyes, though. "CAPTAIN PARKER, I realize your concern for your battered tin can has misguided your judgment, but I'd appreciate if you'd-gggk!"

Steve wrapped one hand around the doctor's throat, his eyes dangerously calm. "Doctor Gatchel, if I hear one more degrading remark about Midnight coming from your mouth, I will make you swallow your own teeth. Do I make myself clear?" He didn't bother waiting for an answer. He dropped the jerk and resumed with his study. But the image had disappeared and Steve sighed, irritated, tired and worried.

He returned to Rusti and Kayla, ignoring all the stares and whispers behind him. They were smart to just stay put and mind their own business. Steve crawled up and sat in front of Rusty as Kayla slowly rocked her. "Rusti, you gave that image a name. You've seen it before, haven't you?"

"It haunts me." Rusti's voice came broken and small. "It won't leave me alone. It follows me around in school and it screamed and knocked me out. It won't leave me alone." Tears tumbled down her cheeks, but the tranquilizer kept her from moving. "But I don't know how you're seeing it. Most people can't." The girl sniffed as Kayla wiped her cheeks and nose.

Steve removed his glove and took her hand, now noticing her blue-tipped fingers. "I guess you could say I have an interesting gift because I'm Interfaced with someone special." Parker's own words threatened to choke the tears out of him. Fear for Midnight surfaced and Steve stoutly reminded himself they were all alive and there was still hope. He drew courage from that and answered Rusti's question. "I've been to places, Rusti, where that image is a natural phenomena. You're not going crazy. You're not just seeing things. The people on the planet Nek'zhabry call it an al-d'shoonee. It's the solidified manifestation of a psychic projection; usually from a damaged psyche. But usually only extremely powerful minds can create these things."

Rusti stared at him, dumbfounded. The shock on her face did not fade for several long seconds until she found her voice. "A psychic projection? Someone is projecting that thing? It belongs to somebody?"

"That's right." Steve already noticed a great difference in the stress on the girl's expression.

But Rusti started to quiver. "Then why is it screaming at me? Why am I the only one that can really see it? Why did it hit Cody's car? Who's it from?" The answer shot into her head as though it had been there all along and she had not bothered to put two and two together. Optimus. She could only lip the name. "Optimus. It's from Optimus. But why does it scream at me?" the distress came back to her bearing. "Why? What did I do?"

"Maybe," Steve drew carefully, "it's him trying to get help."

Now she understood. All those years Prime silent suffered ended in the formation of a projection for which he was neither conscious of, nor could control. A part of him was violently crying out. No one paid attention. They all just went on about their daily lives, living heedless under the shadow of their leader. Sometimes they'd crucify his character on the alter of personal conceit. They'd slander him behind closed doors because most of the Autobots knew very little about their own leader; how much he worked for them, what he did to keep their society together. Rusti had seen it throughout her life. Had Roddi not been there to soften the blows . . . She remembered the dare she took one Christmas and wondered what else the general Autobot population had to say about their leaders. What the hell did they want, anyway? Optimus already gave them his life. He bled for them, surrendered his privacy, his time, sometimes his patience. He had nothing left for himself. There were moments Rusti believed the Autobot leader just ran on automatic; devoid of emotion, detaching himself even from her.

"Just sit down and be quiet." Steve heard Shan's voice carry all the way from the other end of the group. He stood and found her talking to Gatchel.

"NO I WON'T BE QUIET! YOU PEOPLE HAVE DONE NOTHING BUT DELAYED OUR OWN DEATHS!"

Steve glanced at Kayla. "I'll be right back." He made his way round the survivors, taking note how weak many of them had become. Their time was very short, now. "What's going on?" he asked in a general, quiet voice.

Gatchel spun around and darted glaring eyes at the Tentchi leader. "YOU!" he snarled, "all you . . . PEOPLE." he shot a pointed finger toward Spellbinder who handed three bottle of water to the two boys and Mr. Kamrath for his baby. "We're out of water, Captain Parker and I just heard this oversized Tonka Toy mention there isn't anymore!"

Steve forced himself to remain patient and his eyes climbed the height of Spellbinder's body. "Is that true?"

"I'm afraid so. Voodoo and Dagger haven't come back yet and Ultra Magnus said he thought he spotted 'signs'."

Naturally, the Sentinel meant xenomorphs and Steve understood. He decided to try and handle the panicking jerk diplomatically, "Doctor Gatchel, I'm aware of your concern. Perhaps you'd like to DO something about it yourself."

"Oh no!" Gatchel's eyes flared with an unnatural light. "I'm willing to bet this whole thing is the fault of you and your Walking Black Microwave Oven playing around with those Gates on Cybertron."

Before he thought it through, Steve struck Gatchel hard enough to toss the doctor several yards away. Survivors moved out of the way, surprised. Gatchel moaned and remained where he lay. Satisfied, but not sorry, Steve turned away and gazed back at Spellbinder. "Are you sure that's all the water you could find?" he asked quietly.

"Very. I'm sorry for it, Captain. I know what it means."

Parker merely nodded and he could hear someone softly weeping. He had no idea how to get them back; there were no power sources and Midnight was incapable of Gating. They would simply have to wait for Kyle to get back before searching other options.

Someone's scream drew Parker's attention and when he turned, he saw Gatchel's body reverse its course from the floor to the air and back in front of him. "nortrebyC no setaG esoht htiw dnuora gniyalp nevO evaworciM kcalB gniklaW ruoy dna uoy fo tluaf eht s'ti teb ot gnilliw m'I"

The phenomena seized Parker with fear and he watched as every one of Gatchel's movements came backwards. Then the doctor froze and that too sent chills through Steve's body. He had never seen anything like this and why was it happening only to Gatchel? Did he cross a 'pocket' or did a time pocket open right about his location? It was hard to tell.

Vanatta Rawson, one of the few survivors who had nothing missing, approached Parker, her eyes wide open. "What is this, Captain Parker? What's going on?" But Steve could only glance at her, just as concerned.

Then Gatchel unfroze: "I'm willing to bet it's the fault of you and your Walking Black Microwave Oven playing around with those Gates on Cybertron!" Then without Steve even touching him, Gatchel 'oofed' and flew through the air again, landing in the same place and way that he did a few minutes ago. All eyes turned to him, watching to see if the phenomena would repeat itself. But it did not. Gatchel sat up and acted as though nothing happened. "What!" he snapped with a mouth full of blood. And that verified it. Gatchel had no idea what happened to him. He wiped his mouth and spat out two teeth. He glared a how-dare-you at Steve, but said nothing.

Steve frowned and glanced about the room, searching for shadows. Most people did not have any and Steve wondered if the causality loop was already starting from the non-physical to the physical. If that were the case, he'd have a really good paper to write should they ever get back home.

Kyle rounded the corner wall and found Steve sleeping next to the girl. He knelt beside his friend and took Steve's hand. _Hey, _he Called, _We're back._

Steve drew a deep breath and rolled over as one Rodimus passed them bearing a large body wrapped in blankets. The other Rodimus followed him and Matt brought up the end of the line.

"You-ah-you guys were gone for quite some time, Kyle." Parker yawned, still exhausted. His skin and bones ached with effort.

"I know. We couldn't decide whether it would be safe to bring Prime down here or not. The stairs are disintegrating. This is it. We can't go anywhere else, now."

Parker sat up and rubbed his neck then raised a brow at the doctor. "Might need to check Gatchel." He didn't see the questioning look on Kyle's face, "I knocked a couple of his teeth out."

Kyle grunted and gazed past Steve to the girl. "Is she really asleep, or is she faking it?"

"I'm faking it." Rusti answered irritably.

Steve frowned in Kyle's stead. "Gatchel gave her a tranq, but it didn't work very well."

"Why did he give her that?" Kyle bounced his eyes about the room, looking for the C.M.O. "Kayla's already given her-"

"She saw something that terrified her." Parker wearily made eye contact with his friend. "I've not seen something like that in a very long time."

"What?"

"An al-d'shoonee."

Kyle looked at him incredulously. "No way."

Steve shrugged. "Oh, and we're out of water." That made Kyle close his eyes a moment and sigh. "Yeah," Parker agreed, "that was my reaction. So! What did you guys bring down?"

"Optimus Prime."

And Captain Parker raised a brow. Both Tentchi turned when Rusti leapt to her feet and pressed her way through the group to the two Rodimi. Kyle sighed and pushed to his feet. "What a handful," he muttered. And he followed the girl at his own pace.

Rodimus laid Optimus in a more secluded corner near the group and the light. He lifted the cloth from over his friend's face and searched Optimus' optics for a sign of consciousness. But to his dismay, Rodimus found nothing. The familiar sound of little feet shod in special metal entered his audios and Rodimus turned to greet his lady-friend. Rusti looked as badly as he felt himself. Usually Rodimus would find some words of meager comfort to offer her, even if he did not take comfort from them himself. But at this moment, Roddi could not think of anything to say. They were trapped with no energy source and according to Ultra Magnus' transmission, there would soon be no water or food, either. Obviously none of them were gods or super creatures. None of them had the ability to break free of the temporal trap. However, and, of course, this was 'reaching' a bit too far, what about the Matrix? Was it possible It had the power and the ability necessary to help them break free?

Sadly enough, Rodimus honestly did not think so.

_It's okay, Roddi. You don't have to say anything._ Rusti's little voice in his head comforted him, but it also made him grieve that she would be there to suffer right alongside them. Why? Why her? Why didn't she either freeze with other humans and Autobots, or arrive there at all? Rodimus wanted to hold her close, to wrap his arms around her and sense some shred of consolation from the contact. But even that bit of comfort was forbidden him.

_I'm sorry, Lady Friend._ he mournfully sent, _I just don't have anything to offer right at the moment._

She sent him a forced smile, knowing. But she said nothing else. Kyle arrived, scanner already in hand. He did not see two survivors, Malchaun Tach and Dillon assist Gatchel in his effort to approach. Gatchel was bowed over in pain, holding his bleeding mouth over a wet cloth. Kyle scanned the Autobot and a sudden thought occurred to him. He turned and scanned Rusti.

Same readings. "That's . . . what I thought." he muttered. "But that's odd."

"What's odd?" Rodimus immediately asked.

"Prime's the one with the Zatra Tatlic virus."

"And why is that odd?" Rodimus crossed his arms almost defensively, staring at Prime rather than the doctor.

"First, because he's not displaying any of the symptoms. Secondly, there's still an unknown factor as to how he got it. Thirdly, Rusti's the one that has all the symptoms." Kyle snapped the scanner shut and stared firmly at Rodimus Prime. "What is going on here?"

"What?"

"I think you know what I mean. The girl. Optimus Prime. Is there a connection you haven't told me about? Are they Interfaced?"

Rodimus drew back in surprise. "Heh . . . uhh . . ." A smirk of confusion followed Roddi's answer, or rather, the lack thereof.

Kyle decided not to be insulted. After all, not every alternate reality had Sentinels and Interface partners. But there was a definite connection between Rusti and Optimus Prime.

Optimus softly moaned. Rusti turned from him, covering her face. She leaned against the nearby bulkhead and wept softly as Kayla came to her with a blanket in hand. Kyle glanced from Prime to her, wondering. He sent a slightly encouraging smile at her, but didn't think his half-attempt would go very far. "It'll be alright, Sweetheart. We'll figure something out."

"It's not that." Rusti sobbed. She was very grateful Miss Kayla wrapped a blanket about her. Not that she was actually cold; not with the exo-suit under her clothes, but it was comforting. "It's something else." But even she was unable to exactly pinpoint the problem. She followed Kayla's lead and slid to the floor and rested her head against the Kshi's shoulder.

Kyle knelt before them and offered Rusti a tissue. "What's that?" he asked softly.

She wiped her face and blew her nose, keeping her eyes down on the ground. She said nothing for a long moment then her whole posture changed; her back straightened. Her chin lifted, but she still could not look directly at him. "Have you ever heard a scream, engulfed in fire and cold?" Her voice came surprisingly level, though quiet. "You can't really hear it. Not really. But I have. It frightens me. I hear it now and again. It comes from the past and maybe can be heard in some distant tomorrow. Sometimes I think it would make me burst from the inside. Other times all I feel is terrible sadness."

Kyle flinched when the girl finally stared at him. From the sea-grey color, her eyes changed to blinding royal blue. They burned as though she were an Autobot herself. Kyle wanted to alert the two Rodimi, but Ultra Magnus approached in long solid strides with Dagger tagging his heels. Steve joined them and they quietly talked with the two Rodimi for the moment. Scott turned back to Rusti and found her eyes had already returned to their normal color. He wiped a tear from her eye, very puzzled. "I don't have an answer for you, Rusti." he said in kind tones.

"No." she whispered. "No one does."

Kyle left the girl with Kayla and approached the small group. It was then he discovered Gatchel anticipated his turn for attention. But Kyle felt he could wait. _What's going on_? he asked Steve.

_Magnus says he's found evidence of xenomorphs. _

_Oh. Droppings? _

_No, wall marks-from outside the walls. They're pressing to get in somehow, but can't make the breech._ Kyle nodded and listened in on the rest of the conversation.

" . . . to make things more exciting," Dagger continued, "we've watched 'home movies play on walls. Magnus here said that was going on even before this whole incident."

Magnus nodded in concurrence. "It's been happening all over Fort Max. There's been reports of voices without anyone else around. Lights turn on in places where there are no light fixtures."

Steve nodded and folded his arms. "What about the al-d'shoonee? Has anyone else-"

"The what?" Rodimus interrupted.

"The al-d'shoonee. It's a psychic manifestation. Has anyone else seen it?" Everyone stared at him as though he were talking of something completely irrelevant. Steve looked cross. "Rusti's seen it. That's what frightened her earlier."

Roddi knelt before Parker. The Autobot's optics glowed a cold bright blue. "What did you call it?"

Kyle resisted the temptation to pull his scanner out again. Something about Rodimus really nagged him and he wished for the millionth time Skywolf were there to verify his own suspicions. "An al-d'shoonee, Rodimus Prime. You could almost call it a ghost, maybe a psychic footprint, except the person who is projecting it is not dead. Have you seen it?"

Rodimus slowly shook his head then stared straight into nothing. Everyone there waited for him to do or say something, but he did neither for a long moment. Kyle narrowed his eyes and finally produced his scanner. He adjusted it several times until he found a frequency that picked up scant, unidentified wavelengths.

"He's stuck in a time fracture, just like Gatchel after I punched him." Steve shuddered, dreading the thought they might be caught in a time loop.

"No, it isn't." Kyle refuted.

"No, it isn't." Rodimus Prime agreed. "Little Bo Peep found a Black Sheep and chased it all the way home. It danced and pranced and franced about, till it was stoned. Then she cut its head off, took it to bed and drank it all night long." Rodimus smiled coldly and stared down at Kyle. "Are you a Black Sheep, Doctor? It's asking you."

Kyle could not move. Something lurked behind those optics. And while he saw nothing, he envisioned something with terrible long legs and a triangular faceless head. It spoke in a Black Tongue and he felt it drawn to him more in curiosity than in blood lust.

Voodoo felt the same coldness, but confusion kept him from intervening. He could not understand what was going on. But Steve knew; he'd seen this sort of behavior among predators. "Stop it." Parker snarled. He stepped between Roddi and Kyle. "I SAID stop it!"

"As you wish, Captain." Roddi's voice came as though something else spoke through it. There was no emotion, not so much as a real apology. "Though, it makes you fair game. I Saw you, you know." Rodimus pulled himself to his feet and departed from the group.

Rodimus was about to ask the question, but it was Magnus who took his turn to kneel before the two Tentchi. "What was that all about?" Horror widened his optics but his training kept him from over reacting to the immediate situation.

Steve would have answered, but he honestly did not know. He looked to Doctor Scott but Kyle was still trying to figure out exactly what the scanner picked up. Just to satisfy his curiosity, Kyle scanned Optimus on the same frequency and received the same result. Then he scanned Magnus and got nothing.

It was frustrating being a doctor at times. He turned away as Shan approached. At least he could tend to Gatchel's . . . whatever the problem was, and take his mind off the moment. He replaced Gatchel's two teeth and used a small laser to heal the damage temporarily. "When we get back home, you'll have to make an appointment with a dentist. I think the roots are torn." He didn't catch the C.M.O.'s sneer. Kyle returned to Kayla and silently offered her to read his findings. She nodded, understanding. Steve came up behind and would have spoken but something flashed, catching all their attention. Kyle looked up first, finding the Alternate Rodimus Prime had returned and sat beside Optimus, brooding.

Another bright light flashed across the area and something flickered from the wall along the other side of the room. All eyes turned in silent astonishment as a 'movie' sparked to life. The colors and events flooded the room with light brighter than the anti-grav.

A creature stood like a towering abomination. It was a patchwork of robotic body shells sewn haphazardly with four arms and two heads. When it laughed, the terrible sound came doubled in screams of agony and delights from evil spirits haunting its dead parts.

It walked on four legs, a thing that might have been a centaur on another world. A conglomeration of metal and stone encrusted its 'animal' half, giving it the appearance of moving, rotting junk. It treaded on muddied ground amid wind sheer, tromping through a village of humanoids. It buried them alive, caring not for child or brave warrior; they all died underfoot, or by poisonous breath when it spit flame from its two heads.

And from the midst of clouds and rain, a valiant, strong robot jumped, vibro-sword in hand and it hacked at the abomination.

But the evil instilled in its metallic flesh could not be eliminated by a single brave soul. And the thing reached with all its four arms and wrapped the robotic warrior and its two heads began to devour the warrior.

Rusti covered her eyes and softly whimpered. Roddy turned to Rodimus, feeling Shan quake slightly from his own horror. "What is going on here?"

Rodimus bowed his head, taking some heart that Optimus seemed to rest more quietly now. "I don't know."

Gatchel batted his eyes in disbelief and pointed to the far side of the room. "That wall just played a movie for us and you don't know what's going on?"

Roddi shot him a sharp glance. "There have been a lot of things happening we can't explain."

"Tyr-ani-cussss," Optimus murmured with great effort. He drew a tiresome breath. "It was . . . supposed to be the first . . . De . . .cep-ti-con multi . . . changer."

Rodimus took Prime's hand in his. "Optimus," he whispered and Roddi wanted to say more, but didn't know what to say at all. He bowed his head, ashamed of his failure.

"'Bout thir-ty-eight . . . mil-lion years 'go," Prime weakly added. ". . . B'fore the 'ssassin-ation of . . . Maximus Prime. It's . . . another Matrix memory . . . Roddi. Plays over and over in my mind . . . it won't . . . s-stop."

Doctor Scott's brows scrunched in puzzlement. "The Matrix?" he asked quietly. "Why? How so? How long has this been going on?"

Rodimus shrugged as Prime's optics dimmed down and shut off. "In the last few weeks." he answered quietly.

"Really? And how long has Optimus Prime been this ill?"

"Months."

"Years." Rusti suddenly corrected. She felt millions of eyes stab at her in surprise and she tried not to shrink away in embarrassment. She flushed, nevertheless. "Optimus has been sick for years. He's just never told anybody."

Kyle's brows scrunched up in concentration. He glanced at Steve as though Parker had the answer he sought. Then he scrutinized Roddi. "You say that . . . movie we just saw is a manifestation of the Matrix? And that this has been going on for a long time? Do you think it has something to do with our present situation?"

"No." Rodimus answer quietly. "I'm sure the Matrix is not responsible for this."

Steve felt the incredible urge to talk about his experience with the Matrix, but somehow forced himself to remain silent about it. "Kyle, what about Midnight? Do you think whatever the Matrix is doing is affecting Mid?"

Kyle did not take his eyes off Rodimus. A nagging feeling tugged at the back of his head. It was Roddi's earlier behavior that seemed to send some kind of message and Scott wondered if he could coax it out of him again. "I think," he answered out loud, "it's very possible. I think the Matrix is affecting everyone here in some way. _Shall I test him for schizophrenia, Steve? _

_You think he's insane? _

_Don't you? _Kyle sensed Voodoo landing just outside the group area. He waited until his Dokiah was within view before plucking up his courage to pick a psychological fight. If something were to happen, he could easily phase with Voodoo. Rodimus, you were quoting poetry earlier. Can you tell me about that?"

Roddi laughed uneasily. "Poetry, Doctor Scott? You must be joking. I'm not a poet.

The Alternate Second seemed to tell the truth, but Kyle was not convinced. Neither was Magnus and the Major-general decided to press the issue. "You were saying something about Bo Peep and you were staring at him for a long moment, Rodimus. Are you sure nothing is wrong?"

Roddi's expression hardened. "Why would I behave like that? Things have been tough. You all know that. AND WHY IS EVERYONE STARING AT ME? Rodimus's expression remained determined, but his optics belied his claims; they turned dark as though dead.

Kyle turned cold and he and Voodoo glanced at one another, preparing to phase just in case. "My diagnosis is insanity, Rodimus Prime. You and Optimus both are infected with a virus that quite possibly has infected the Matrix. That's why Midnight is so sick; not because of the intensity of gamma wave life force, but because the Matrix is tainted." Kyle felt the whole room fall dead still as a shadow crossed Roddi's face. The 'demon Rodimus' emerged, proving Kyle's theory.

"Devouring it is the antithesessssss . . . sis . . . of being a god." Rodimus laid on his thorax, his face too close to Kyle for Voodoo's comfort.

"And I find it kind of funny,  
I find it kind of sad,  
The Dreams in Which I'm dying  
are the Best I've ever had."

Kyle's heart froze in horror when Rodimus opened his mouth far wider than it should be able to. Inside he could see the inner workings of vocal units and the intake valves of air and energon and something else that should not be there at all; something hollow like a second mouth with mechanisms resembling teeth. Fortunately for Rusti, she had her eyes closed as she softly wept in Kayla's arms. She did not see Rodimus lunge for Kyle, nor did she see Kyle phase out of existence, out of the Prime's reach. Rodimus looked about like a dog sniffing for his lost biscuit. The whole room watched in horror as the animal-like Autobot kept slithering about on his thorax until he encountered Voodoo's feet. He slowly traced the Sentinel's form until he once again sat on his knees, his eyes now returned to the usual blue.

Voodoo's face turned up in a smirk. "Neat trick, huh?"

Magnus' mouth was already drawn down in awe, but now his optics grew in surprise. "That was you?" he gasped at Voodoo. He was astounded again when Kyle appeared beside Kayla, scanner in hand. Magnus wanted to ask questions, but he had no idea where to start. He glanced from Voodoo to Kyle then back. Then he looked to Steve who winked at him, but said nothing. The City commander stood there for quite some time, his mouth gapped in amazement.

"I don't know how much time you have," Kyle stated gravely.

Magnus stared, waiting for Kyle to say something more. "Until what?"

Scott shrugged. "Until . . . until. Until, um, both the Primes are so steeped in insanity that . . . you may have to assassinate them. Until . . . maybe the Matrix self-destructs. I really haven't seen anything like this before-"

"Self destructs!" All eyes turned to Roddi who now seemed more like himself. He acted as though he did not remember the last few minutes. "The Matrix! Are you kidding? Are you reading that thing right, Doc? You can't be serious!"

"I'm very serious. And I'd guess it's causing you to black out. And I'm assuming sooner or later you'll end up like Optimus Prime is right now."

Rusti started to panic and from panic, she started hyperventilating. Kyle jumped to Kayla's side and they laid Rusti on the floor. The girl wept and struggled out from under their hands and they tried to give her a breathing apparatus, but she would not hear their words, their commands, their demands. She wanted the world to be right again. She wanted things to be normal so that **she **could be normal and everything would be the way it should be. No more darkness! No more sickness! Where was the sun? Where was the football field and the Dinobots? Where was Cody and Jenn and didn't she have homework to do yet? She was hungry and thirsty and exhausted.

Sssshhhhhhhhhh.

And all the darkness swallowed her and all the girl could do was lay lifelessly on the cold floor. She couldn't even cry anymore; her tears came in shudders. Something tore into her and ripped out a part of her. It devoured her living tissue like a spider nibbling on a fly, though it was already full from another meal. Then vaguely she felt the warmth of another body, arms that supported her back, a shoulder on which her head rested; a heart that beat comfortingly against her chest. She shuddered, weak and trembling. The night terror lingered in her mind, but at least someone now held her and dragged her back to the present reality. She was not alone after all.

Not alone.

Baby bird. Somebody called her 'Baby bird' and that felt good. She shuddered again, allowing someone to touch her. The touch was kind, brushing her hair, smoothing her back. Her heart gradually slowed, her nerves slowly settled. She was thirsty and longed for the soothing patter of soft rain.

Baby bird, don't cry

But she could not control her tears. She tried to sniff, but her nose was already stuffed. Her breath came in soft grieving sighs.

You're nestled sheltered on high

And she thought of the cliff sides surrounding Autobot City; Suicide Pass and Lookout Mountain. She thought of the spring and the autumn when the world changed colors. There was the sun.

Let your dreams safely keep

That was part of a lullaby, wasn't it? Didn't Roddi sing that more than a few times?

For within our souls may you sleep.

Kyle gazed up and found Rodimus gently attending the girl, softly singing. It was the first time Kyle recalled ever hearing Rodimus Prime sing to anybody.

Baby bird sleep tight  
let your hopes take flight  
your name the stars softly call  
Baby bird, you'll never fall

Kyle checked Rusti and found her finally fast asleep. He gave the Autobot leader a grim smile. "You'd make a good mother, Rodimus." he said quietly.

Roddi gave him a wry smile but did not answer.

The air tingled and pricked her skin with icy fingernails. Rusti moaned in distressful sleep, once again wishing she were home in bed, sleeping with her worn-out fluffy duffy. Slight jabs of pain thrombed against her chest and the girl rolled on her back. She expected the headache to return. Then something pinched her wrist and she weakly whined, unable to fight it. Then it was over. Slowly Rusti finally opened her eyes, finding Kyle sitting next to her, wrapping a cloth about her wrist.

"I-i-i-iTTT sssshhhhhhoullld helllllllpp, Rrrrrusssstiiiiii."

Now she was awake and she wrinkled her brows in puzzlement. Something warm coursed through her arm and leaked across her chest. It traveled over her body like a soft warm fire. She could even feel her fingers radiate with warmth. Rusti sat up as she watched Doctor Scott replace a hypo and talk in very slow motion. She glanced about the room and for a moment found everyone, everything slowed to a near-frozen state. Then she realized the shadows in the room; everyone's shadow, every shadow cast from the antigrav light above, kept moving at a regular pace. Then the shadows stopped moving altogether. Then they moved at an amazing rate. The shadows suddenly froze again then started moving backward.

Rusti stood and searched for an explanation.

"Did I hurt you? I'm sorry."

She turned and found Doctor Scott resume in regular time/space motion. He placed the hypo back in a pocket in his suit and smiled up at her. She returned the smile, less certain than he, and sat back down. Her eyes fell on her left wrist, now wrapped with a clean cloth. She wordlessly searched his eyes for explanation.

"Serum for the virus. I'm sure it'll help somehow."

"You had a cure all along?"

"No, not all along. I had to filter impurities and it took a while. I figured now was a good time to give it to you, while things are still quiet."

She looked puzzled but Rusti decided it was best not to ask where it came from. As long as it stopped the pain and the hallucinations, that was good enough for her. "Thank you."

Someone screamed and all eyes shot in the general direction. Rusti swallowed air and backed toward Optimus. At the front of the room, near the blocked entrance/exit, floated a Quintesson. At first its form was naught but a transparent figure, something like a ghost. Its tentacles snaked back and forth, its Face of Greed scanned the room back and forth. It looked so real, so convincing. "All forces are momentarily stationary. We can begin the first phase of our project."

The room faded from a world of dark cold metal to a small dirty asteroid, lit by a nearby planetary mass about the size of Saturn. Its rings sat in a diagonal direction, but the planet itself did not rotate. It came complimented by three moons all in late eclipse, all of irregular shape and smooth composition. More than one Quintesson appeared around the survivors and many of them tried to hide behind boulders that weren't really there or they huddled together in terror.

A brain-shattering maelstrom shot through the atmosphere, causing everyone to cower from the terrible explosion. Light flooded the room as if Heaven opened all its gates and shed every square inch of its glory upon one speck of the universe. And a heartbeat throbbed, counting the seconds . . . Two, Three. Four. Five . . . Ten . . . Twenty.

At first nothing. Then another flash of light, distant, but no less brilliant, flared and died. Dead silence followed and oh, how cold and loud that silence was!

No, thought Rusti, this was not real. None of this was real at all. They were still in the room. It was still deathly dark outside the anti-grav light. What they were seeing and experiencing was a Matrix memory. "It's not real!" she cried out, but her voice was swallowed by the ensuing thunderclap as though God Himself had spoken. The sound rattled bones and three people bled from their ears. Four fainted and even Rusti fell, weakened by the echoes of Quintesson-wrought destruction.

Then the blast. Was it like an atomic bomb? Or maybe a hydrogen bomb? Was it like fire from Heaven? Was it more like the murder of a super creature? Yes, it had to have been like the death of a super creature, for even Unicron's death left marks throughout the galaxy. Rusti thought her skin was being ripped from her body. Her breath was stolen from her and she could see and feel nothing for what felt like hours. It came and came and kept coming and would not let up, like an eternal storm of fire.

Then, a voice. No, several voices. Optimus's voice came first: "IF YOU DO THIS, IF YOU ENSLAVE THE CREATURE, WE WILL ALL PAY FOR IT."

But somehow Rusti knew the Quints could not enslave the planet-sized creature. And she knew it was about to give birth. But the Quints discovered they could not tame it or enslave it. So they chose to destroy it. Optimus tried to stop them but could not; the Autobot Council of Elders felt it bad policy to intervene with Quintesson affairs when the Quints were not attempting to retake Cybertron. The Quints were cowards. They had to be to do things like prey on the weak and helpless.

And just as Optimus warned, rest of the cosmos paid for their arrogance. The death of the planet-creature caused Cybertron to lose its orbit. The shockwave obliterated other planets in the same solar system and the result extended to such galactic proportions that it wiped out all life on the planets of Mars and Venus. Earth was not in the same alignment, thereby, it remained unaffected.

The devastation destroyed Alpha Centauri. Proxima Centauri turned inward, shrank and collapsed into a Brown Dwarf star.

But a twinkling of hope sparked when the Quints opened the Time window in 2007. One moment of their arrogance canceled another moment of arrogance and some of the effects reversed permanently. Alpha Centauri was restored.

The Matrix remembered it all and it grieved for the loss of life, for the loss of balance.

The light died, leaving the room once again bathed by the anti-grav light. All occupants; Human, Alien and Transformer alike had no words to convey the terrible shock they suffered. They felt the death of billions of lives. They took into their bodies the brunt of the impact. They heard the sounds and felt the sorrow. Their bodies and minds fell languid with emotional and mental exhaustion and all they could do was sit or lie in deathly-still silence.

Rusti sat with her back against the coverlet protecting Optimus. Her ears rang from the terrible sounds. Her skin and muscles ached as though she had been battered and bruised with a baton. What was that? It had to be more than a mere memory. They all lived it for real; a horrific personal experience. They felt the destruction and learned the history first hand. But how was all that possible? No answer. No answer came to her at all. Spellbinder and Ultra Magnus rose first and began checking on all those who lay still, stricken into shock. A few people murmured in pain. Then the baby started crying and her father tried to comfort her, but he too wept.

Rusti watched as Kayla sadly covered Mrs. Strill's face with a blanket. Dead. It was not real, though! Rusti kept telling herself over and over, the experience wasn't real. There were no Quints here! But something here caused a Matrix memory to solidify to the point of reality.

The old lady near Doctor Gatchel wept loudly. They were all trapped in hell and the words tumbled from her lips between sobs.

Roddi's form shadowed Rusti from the anti-grav light and inwardly she shuddered. He smiled, but it failed to lift her spirits. "Are you alright, Lady Friend?"

She nestled close to Optimus, taking a little comfort from the blanket covering his form. "I guess." she whispered. She did not want to say anything about her own despair. There were enough people in the room who voiced her feelings.

Minutes stretched into long hours. They ran out of water. The baby settled, but Rusti could still hear her whimper and imagined Kamrath wept in fear of losing his daughter. Vanatta Rawson, the businesswoman, talked quietly with Shan and they agreed Beldoun Tor had finally given up and died.

No one knew what to do. There were no supplies here, they could not go down, the steps were all destroyed and the snake morph nested below, waiting. Perhaps that was all they could do, too. Wait. Waste away and wait.

Rusti realized she had drifted to sleep. She did not know how long she walked in darkness and silence, but it felt good to actually sleep a little. She felt guilty hugging so closely to Optimus, nestling among the blankets when others had nothing to cling to. But no one paid her any mind.

A few minutes later, Rusti swore she saw the face of a robot pressing through the metal wall from the other side of the room. She was still in shock and most likely it was her imagination.

Black spots pricked the air as though time/space were becoming so insubstantial, the air itself was starting to tear.

Then a commotion started from the same place the Quint appeared a while ago. Magnus shouted at Dagger and Voodoo and they searched for scrap metal to seal a hole they had not seen before. Rusti was too tired to ask what was going on. The next minute, she did not have to. The walls around them began to twist and the faces of xenomorphs pressed against them. At first it looked more like a play of light and shadow. But that was when Rusti realized no one in the room was casting shadows. The floor rose right next to her and she took to her feet, amazed that she could move so fast in spite of her weariness. It wasn't a trick after all. It seemed the floor had become so flimsy that the morphs were trying to tear their way in. But that wasn't the case at all. The shapes kept rising and sinking into the floor until one shape remained and detached itself from the floor. It remained still for several minutes before it changed color. The shape redefined itself and a xenomorph appeared. Its rib cage expanded and reduced as though the thing were breathing.

"They're coming right out of the goddamned floor!" Dagger declared. He shot one but another took its place and another and another, rising like bubbles in a boiling sauce pan. One fully-formed morph dashed amid the group and slashed down two people, devouring one on the spot. Another morph, a far larger one, charged Magnus, smashing two other survivors in its. Shan fired at a two-headed morph as it wriggled its way from the wall. A terrible roar sounded through the room and suddenly-

The impact knocked the wind out of Kyle and jolted him to the bone. He forgot to breathe. Doctor Scott batted his eyes to life just as another sensation hit him; he fell down, down, down. His own form collapsed again as his chest took the brunt of another impact. Irresistibly strong, invisible hands pinned him to the ground. Kyle instinctively struggled to turn but something snapped dangerously close to his head and for a second, Kyle felt hot breath. The smell of blood came with it.

Kyle lay flat on his back. He batted his eyes at the darkness. His whole body shook uncontrollably. His ears rang loudly. Cold?

No. Not cold. Not the cold he felt a moment again. The air smelled different . . . familiar.

_Kyle? _

_Steve? _

_Are you alive? _

He blinked.

Light shot on and Kyle automatically shrank, hiding his head with his hands.

"Doctor Scott? Are you alright, sir?"

"Kyle?"

That second voice was familiar. Kyle dared look up and found Jill staring back with great concern.

He jolted to his feet and glanced everywhere. Level Two. Organics. Medbay, Section 24. He glanced out the windows and the great city scape of Cybertron greeted him. Three Decepticon fliers zoomed in and out of view. He gripped Jill in a fierce hug. "You're real!"

"Kyle!"

And then he was caught up in Kayla's arms. A dream! It was only a bad dream! Then he realized he still wore his exo-suit and the next second, his eyes fell on his right thigh and found the gash left by the giant snake morph. About him stood the two teenage boys, Malchaun Tach and Vannatta Rawson but no one else.

Steve found himself, Kamrath Darwin, his baby girl, Nurse Andersen and the old lady laying along the stairwell from First Level, Organics. They stirred to life as ceiling lights flashed on. Security filed in and people paralyzed by the event slowly took to their feet, both shocked and dazed in silence. Skywolf had already arrived and started handing orders out in multiple sentences. He checked on Midnight first and ordered him into immediate intensive care. Steve was also gently lifted onto an anti-grav stretcher but he signaled for them to pause for a second and just spotted Gatchel also being hauled away.

"Wolf, what happened?"

"Power outage from that energy ribbon, Captain. One third of this whole ward ceased to exist for ten minutes until the ribbon cleared Cybertron We're getting crazy reports from all across the planet of people missing, or coming back from someplace else, like pockets of parallel realities or something. We've been trying to get to you for the last six minutes, but the buildings were insubstantial; they really didn't exist, if you know what I mean."

A cold eerie feeling filled Steve's heart and he was glad when they covered him with a blanket. He would not sleep for at least a week. "Xenomorphs, Wolf. What about the xenomorphs?"

Skywolf shook his head, "We don't know what happened to them, Steve. They were here before the ribbon hit, but there's not so much as physical evidence they were ever here."

It was several long moments before Steve could breathe again. Then Midnight's shields collapsed and Parker himself fell to unconsciousness.

End.

T.L. Arens


End file.
